Barnabas Prayer July August 2016

To help you pray for the persecuted church

July/August 2016

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BARNABAS Aid – Hope & Relief AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH

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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.

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

Muhammad written on it. Police tried to defend the Christians, saying that the only names on the banner were those of local politicians. Give thanks to God for this unusual example of the Pakistani police seeking to ensure justice for poor Christians. Ask our King, who loves justice, to establish equity for Christians in Pakistan (Psalm 99:4).

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.

Sunday 3 Dear Lord Jesus, we pray for all those affected by the suicide bombing in Gulshan-e-Iqbal Park, Lahore, Pakistan on the afternoon of Easter Sunday (March 27) – the 370 people injured and the loved ones of the 74 people killed. We know that the attack was apparently aimed at Christian families enjoying themselves on this special day of celebration of Your resurrection, and yet many Muslims were also among the victims.

We ask that You will comfort and heal them all. We pray also for those from the splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban who organized this attack and said afterwards that they would continue to attack Christians and other specific target groups. Please take from their hearts this love of violence and draw them to Yourself.

July Friday 1 “Kill me, but I will not abuse the name of Jesus.” These were the words of an Indian Christian called Deepak as Hindu extremists, who had made him strip naked, gave him electric shocks and threatened to throw him on a railway track unless he insulted Jesus. The attack occurred in Bihar state on April 5, as Deepak was on his way to a village to share the Gospel. He had also been chained and then beaten for five hours until he lost consciousness.

Pray that Deepak’s steadfastness will challenge his persecutors and cause them to want to know more about the Jesus he loves and honors so much.

Saturday 2 Muslims in Gujrat, Pakistan, have accused a Christian family of blasphemy because the Christians were sitting to eat in their home on a vinyl banner which the Muslims claimed had the name of

Monday 4 “Fear is a fact of life for us here,” said Parvaiz Masih, one of the Pakistani Christians injured in the Easter Day bombing in Lahore. “From morning till night, we [Christians] feel fear, not only of violent attacks but of all the smaller humiliations that go with being part of a minority community.” Pray that Pakistani Christians may find confidence in the Lord’s promises that He Himself will hold their hand and help them, so they need not be afraid, no matter how much others

may despise them and target them (Isaiah 41:13-14).

Barnabas supports 65 Christian schools in Pakistan, providing education for Christian children in a safe environment Wednesday 6 Turkish media warned in March of possible Islamic State (IS) attacks against churches and synagogues in Turkey. Sky News reported that IS was in the advanced stages of planning an attack on Jewish targets, with a particular focus on to children and young people. Praise God that at the time

Thursday 7 Turkey’s Council of Monuments has approved a request for a new church building in Istanbul, which will be large enough to seat 750 people. This is a cause for great rejoicing among Christians in Turkey, given that buildings have been a major point of persecution by the Turkish authorities for many decades. Pray that the project will be completed as hoped by the end of 2017 and that Christians will be allowed to worship the Lord there in freedom and safety.

Friday 8 Diyarbakir in south-east Turkey was the scene of ten months of heavy fighting between the Turkish military and the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK). The PKK youth declared self-rule in parts of the city, digging trenches and erecting barricades.

Then in late March the Turkish government announced that they were expropriating 6,300 plots of land. Six church buildings were included in the properties seized (theoretically for their protection) by the government.

Mosques were also expropriated, but Turkish mosques – built and maintained with state funding – are state property anyway. The Christians fear that their churches could now be closed down at any time. Pray that God will give wisdom to church leaders and legal experts as they negotiate with the government, so that the congregations will not lose the right to their buildings.

Saturday 9 Secular activists in Bangladesh have been petitioning

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Tuesday 5 Pray for Christian schoolchildren in Pakistan, who face much discrimination and hostility at government schools. For example, Naveed Rafique (age 13) cannot move up to the next grade because he did not pass his Islamic Studies exam. The reason he did not pass was that he was not allowed to recite from the Quran because he had not performed wuzu (also called wudu, the ritual washing that Muslims must do before praying and, according to some Muslims, also before reading the Quran). Another problem is that school textbooks portray non-Muslim Pakistanis as inferior, untrustworthy and disloyal.

Pray that the lives of the Christian children may shine among their classmates and prove the falseness of this message.

of writing no such atrocity has yet occurred and pray for His continued protection of all vulnerable groups in Turkey.

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to have Islam removed from its position as the state religion. The High Court recently threw out their petition (first launched 28 years ago) within a few moments of opening the case. Bangladesh has been officially secular since it came into existence in 1971, but in 1988 Islam was made the state religion. It seems that the High Court seized on a technicality - the fact that the petition was presented by a committee with no legal standing - as a reason to refuse to consider the extremely divisive issue. Pray for a “level playing field” to be restored in Bangladesh so that all religions are treated equally.

people from other religions have taken to joining in the Christian celebrations. Pray that this decision will be reversed before Christmas 2016. The National Federation of Christians has pointed out that the government recognizes 83 festivities for Hinduism and other religions, but if Christmas Day is removed it will mean no holidays for Christians.

Tuesday 12 Nepal’s progressive new constitution fails to provide full religious liberty. It appears to favor Hinduism over other religions, and Article 26 clause 3 prohibits conversion from one religion to another. Christians have petitioned the UN Human Rights Council to call on the government of Nepal amend the constitution to ensure that all religions are treated equally and that every citizen has the freedom to choose their own faith. Pray that their calls will be heard.

Sunday 10 Dear Lord Jesus, You said that unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground it remains only a single seed, but if it dies it produces many seeds. We pray that these words will comfort the loved ones of many who have died for You. Today we remember especially the widow, son and three daughters of Hossein Ali in Bangladesh, hacked to death by three motorcyclists as he took his regular early morning walk earlier this year.

We praise You for his decision 17 years ago to leave Islam and follow You, for His witness that brought two other Muslim families to know You, and for His courage in resisting the threats and pressures from local Islamists.

We pray that his death may bring others to know and love You (John 12:24).

Wednesday 13 Six gunmen attacked a Christian-run home for the elderly in Yemen’s southern port Aden, in March. They told the guards at the gate they had come to visit their elderly mothers but, once on the premises, they went from room to room, handcuffing victims and shooting them in the head. Sixteen people died. Pray that God will bring healing and peace to the injured and survivors, as well as comfort to the bereaved.

Monday 11 Christians in Nepal are distressed that their government has removed Christmas Day from the calendar of national celebrations.

Christmas Day has been a public holiday in Nepal since it became a secular state in 2008 and many

Thursday 14 “We are melting like a candle!” cried a senior Baptist leader from Aleppo, Syria, as he tried to express the devastating effect on defenceless Christians of the continuing violence in Syria, much of it targeting them because

was shelled, he lost his nose and sustained a fractured skull and arm.

His wife Gina lost her eyes, eyelids and face, leaving nothing but burnt flesh. Their son was killed. Soubhi and Gina are among the recipients of 150,000 food parcels or similar relief provided by Barnabas Aid for Syrian Christians in one year. Ask that our all-powerful God may enable them to rejoice in their sufferings, clinging to His promise that suffering leads to hope and hope does not disappoint us because He has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:3-5).

Friday 15 Thank you for praying for the release of the last two hostages (both teenage girls) from the group of 253 Christians seized by Islamic State form the villages along the Khabur river in north-east Syria in February 2015. One of the girls, Maryam David Talya, has now been freed. Please continue to pray for the release of the last girl, remembering also Maryam as she recovers from her long and terrible ordeal.

Sunday 17 Lord Jesus, Prince of Peace, have mercy on Syria. Bring an end to the destructive war and to the oppressive rule of Islamic State (IS) in the territory it controls. We grieve to know how IS is striving to remove all vestiges of Christianity and we share the sorrow of Syrian Christians about the discovery in April of what IS has done to the ancient town of AlQaryatain, where so many Christians used to live. The terrible damage to its churches and other Christian buildings, some dating back more than 1500 years, the destruction of gravestones and all Christian symbols, sends a clear message to Syrian Christians, but we ask that their faith may not fail, that they will not give way to fear, that they may continue to hope, love, and forgive.

Monday 18 A Shura [Council]

Maryam David Talya was freed by Islamic of Imams in Tanzania is urging State after 398 days in captivity Muslims to “follow in the footsteps” Saturday 16 Soubhi is a Christian living in Aleppo, the Syrian city which has been most devastated in the civil war. When his apartment

of Muhammad. They quote a traditional hadith (Sahih Muslim 2167) recording that Muhammad said, “Do not initiate the greeting of peace with Jews or Christians. If you

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of their faith. “Is it possible for our voice to reach to others?” He was responding to a massacre of civilians in Al-Zara, on May 12, a town inhabited by Christians and Alawites (a Shia Muslim minority group).

Approximately 120 men, women and children were killed. Some of the bodies were sawn into pieces. Please pray for the distraught survivors and the greatly distressed bereaved, that they will be comforted. Pray also for the Sunni Islamists who did these terrible deeds that their hearts will be softened and they will turn away from violence.

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meet one of them on the street, drive him to the narrowest part of it.” The Shura is linked with Uamsho, the Muslim separatist group in Zanzibar which has been blamed for many arson attacks on churches. Pray that Tanzanian Muslims will resist this teaching and will seek friendly and cordial relations with Christians, treating followers of all religions as equal in status.

Tuesday 19 “Those who think that destroying our church means we won’t pray are wrong … We have a big tree near the church and will continue meeting there for prayers.”

These determined words came from the minister of a church in the Kagera region of north-west Tanzania, after it was burnt down on May 2. At least twelve other churches in the region have been attacked since 2013. Praise God for the courage and endurance of Tanzanian Christians and pray that this will be a witness to their persecutors.

Wednesday 20 A crowd of around 300 Egyptian Muslims attacked, ransacked and set on fire the homes of seven Christian families near Abu Qurqas, Minya province, on May 20. An elderly Christian woman was dragged from her home, stripped of her clothes by the mob and made to walk naked in the streets while they chanted “Allahu Akbar [God is great].” President Al-Sisi ordered the Egyptian military to repair the homes within a month and at no cost to the owners. Praise God for the president’s determination to protect Christians and ensure that they are treated fairly. Pray that the Lord will hasten the day when Egyptian Christians can sit safely in their own

property and no one will make them afraid (Micah 4:4).

Thursday 21 Bishoy Kameel Garas, an Egyptian Christian, has at last been declared innocent of defaming Islam. The charge, for which he served three years in prison, related to a fake Facebook page opened in his name. He was convicted even though he had posted warnings about the fake page on his real Facebook page and alerted the cyber police to what was happening. He was released from prison last October but the official clearing of his name was not announced until March this year.

Pray that the Egyptian authorities will be determined to prevent such injustice occurring again.

Friday 22 A tent in which an Egyptian Christian congregation had been meeting for worship was burned down by Muslim extremists on May 12. The congregation had been obliged to meet in the tent for the past year because the local authority had sealed their church building, just north of Minya, following protest and riots by local Muslims. Pray for an end to the resentment that many Egyptian Muslims feel about Christians having places of worship, a feeling which all too often results in violence against the Christians.

Saturday 23 Praise God for a precedent set by a court in Alexandria, Egypt, that it is illegal to demolish any church building. The case arose out of a property dispute and the ruling established a set of legal principles relating to churches, including a ban on demolishing, converting to other uses, or selling

a church property in the knowledge that the new owner would demolish the church. This is wonderful news in a country where Christians have struggled so long to have enough church buildings for them all to worship in.

Monday 25 Islamic State (IS) released a video in March apparently showing its religious police burning hundreds of Christian books in Mosul, Iraq.

The Diwan al-Hisba (Chamber of

Algerian Christians worshipping

Tuesday 26 The Christian village of Teleskuf in the Nineveh Plains, Iraq, was attacked by Islamic State (IS) fighters on May 4, causing immense damage. The residents had already fled their homes nearly two years earlier on the night of August 6-7, 2014 when IS swept across the plain and since then have only returned to Teleskuf to hold funerals and bury their dead in the cemetery. The threatening message implied by the attack on the empty Christian village was clear. Ask that the Lord will give strength to His people in Iraq and bless them with peace. (Psalm 29:11) Wednesday 27 President Lukashenko of Belarus, sometimes called “the last dictator in Europe,” has announced that his country is seeking observer status at the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). Lukashenko’s previous leaning has been decidedly towards Russia, and the Muslim population of Belarus is only about 0.3%. However there has been a Muslim presence since the 14th century and a special Belarusian Arabic script was developed with a large volume of Muslim literature written. Pray that Belarus will not become a target for Muslim missionaries and radical Islam.

Thursday 28 Mosques are appearing all over Romania, even in villages

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Sunday 24 Lord Jesus Christ, we lift to You our brothers and sisters in Algeria. We praise You for the many tens of thousands of Algerians who have decided to follow You, knowing the harassment likely to come to them as converts. We thank you that the new Algerian constitution, passed in February, guarantees freedom of worship, and we pray that this may be extended to include freedom to choose one’s faith. We pray that the 2006 law which forbids non-Muslims from worshipping anywhere except in a registered church may be overturned in the light of the new constitution. We ask for wisdom from above for Algerian church leaders trying to register their buildings and getting repeated rejections, especially for leaders of the church in Maatkas, which was ordered in April to cease all religious activities.

Morality Police) were set up by IS soon after they conquered Mosul in June 2014. This book-burning was apparently part of their campaign to destroy all books and manuscripts that do not support their own extreme form of Islam. Pray that God will frustrate their plans and bring good out of what they intend for evil.

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with just one Muslim family, sometimes in places where there are no Muslims at all. There are two seminaries for training imams.

There are many Islamic schools including an Islamic high school in Medgidia which is very popular with non-Muslim Romanians because it is free and there is an opportunity to go on to further education in Turkey.

Romanian Muslims are active in promoting their religion amongst non-Muslims through TV, literature and special events. Pray that Romanian Christians may be strong in the Lord and that their lives and witness may draw Muslims to Christ.

Friday 29 The Muslim minority in Bulgaria includes ethnic Bulgarian Muslims (often called Pomaks) and Turkish-speaking Muslims. From the early 1990s, Arab Muslim missionaries have been active in radicalizing the Pomaks. One method is to take the boys to study in the Gulf states, after which they usually return to Bulgaria as preachers of radical Islam. The Muslim missionaries also give money to the Pomaks, the effects of which can be seen in satellite dishes and bigger houses. There are many mosques, including unregistered mosques promoting radical Islam.

Pray that moderate and liberal attitudes will prevail amongst Bulgarian-speaking Muslims, despite such efforts to make them extremists.

Saturday 30 The Turkishspeaking Muslims of Bulgaria are being increasingly Islamized and “Osmanized� (i.e. made more Turkish). A Turkish organization controls all religious and educational

activity. A Turkish Islamist organization called Nurjular, which is banned in Russia because it is so extreme, is also very active in Bulgaria. Convert churches in Muslim-majority parts of Bulgaria face strong opposition. Pray for their protection in this context of increasingly radical Islam.

Sunday 31 Dear Lord Jesus, we lift to You our brothers and sisters who love You, trust You and follow You but have to do so secretly for fear of persecution. We pray also for those who are isolated and alone, knowing no other believers with whom they can meet and have fellowship. Please help them to hear the voice of your Holy Spirit, comforting them with His presence and guiding them into all truth. In their isolation, may they know in a powerful way the joy of abiding in You, as You abide in them.

Barnabas Aid has helped this congregation of Turkish-speaking converts from Islam in Bulgaria to reconstruct their church building

August Monday 1 The church is growing fast in Arusha, Tanzania, and Barnabas Aid has provided 100,000 New Testaments in Swahili. According to

the 2012 census, Christians were 82% of the population there. Many new congregations are meeting to worship in tents. The Regional Commissioner, Daudi Ntibenda, says the tent churches must be closed down because they are causing “noise pollution” by their singing. Christians wonder why the Muslim call to prayer (five times a day) is not considered noise pollution. Pray that church leaders will boldly resist this pressure and that Mr. Ntibenda will cease his harassment.

and for many other Muslims in that country who have decided to follow Christ.

Thursday 4 Please continue to pray about the issue of sharia finance in Uganda, which a new law has allowed for the first time. Church leaders, concerned that this was effectively a first step in the introduction of sharia, protested to President Museveni.

The president then informed the Mufti of Uganda that the Church had complained about the establishment of the Islamic Sharia Finance Bank.

Church leaders are encouraged that the president took note of their concerns, but a change in the law will be needed if the situation is to be reversed.

Friday 5 “The stranger called the church, using a hidden phone number, introduced himself as a Muslim, and said he would blow up the church a few days later. This was repeated twice… Please pray for God’s protection and care, as well as that the church will not be constrained by fear.” This message from a church in Tajikistan was sent to Barnabas Aid on April 25. Lift to the Lord this congregation, their leader and the person who has been threatening them.

Wednesday 3 Thirty-two Muslim sheikhs in one part of an East African country became Christians but had to leave their homes because of the danger of violence from the local Muslim community. Two of them returned briefly in order to attend a family funeral but died mysteriously during their visit. They had been perfectly healthy the day before. Pray for the protection of the remaining 30

Saturday 6 At a referendum held in Tajikistan on May 22, voters overwhelmingly endorsed changes to the constitution that will allow autocratic President Rahmon to serve an unlimited number of terms and give him and his family permanent immunity from prosecution. Political parties based on religion were banned, thus permanently outlawing the main opposition, the Islamic Renaissance

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Tuesday 2 The Tanzanian media are dominated by Muslims. There are 26 television stations, of which eight are owned by Christians. There are 125 radio stations, of which 38 are owned

by Christians. Eleven applications to register radio stations in Muslimmajority parts of the country were refused by Dr. Ally Yah’ya Simba, the Muslim director of the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority (TCRA), apparently just because they were Christian-owned.

Dr. Simba has recently been removed from office but the government minister who oversees the TCRA remains a radical Muslim who has made some worryingly anti-Christian statements. Pray that the voice of Christians will not be suppressed in this Christian-majority country.

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Party. Although the president’s rule is corrupt and repressive, it is better for Tajikistan’s Christians than being ruled by an Islamic political party. There have been at least two attempted coups by radical Muslims in recent months. Pray that in all things God will work for the good of those in Tajikistan who love Him (Romans 8:28).

Sunday 7 O Lord, we pray today for Christians in Uzbekistan who find themselves facing many court cases and fines, usually for nothing more than possessing Christian literature.

Many are poor and struggle to pay the fines, perhaps even having to sell the land that they farm to earn a living.

Please provide for them, Jehovah Jireh. We pray also for the Christian lawyer who represents many of the cases, and is suffering ill health from a heart condition. Strengthen and heal him that he can continue to serve Your faithful people with his skills.

Monday 8 A Qatari man and his wife living in San Antonio, Texas, were charged with slavery because of the way they treated two Asian women working for them. The couple defended themselves in court by pointing out that Muhammad kept slaves and therefore it would be Islamophobic if they were punished for doing so. They were deported and ordered to pay $60,000 to each of the women. Slavery is accepted in classical Islam and nine Muslim-majority countries did not abolish slavery until the 20th century. In the 21st century, Islamic State group set up a slave market to sell Yazidi and Christian women and children they had captured. Pray for an end to slavery in Islam.

Tuesday 9 Praise God that the Australian House of Representatives has passed unopposed a motion calling the actions of Islamic State (IS) against the Assyrian people “genocide.” The majority of Christians in Iraq and Syria are ethnic Assyrians, the indigenous people of the region, who lived there for many centuries before the arrival of the Muslim Arabs. Pray that more Western nations will acknowledge the current genocide and follow Australia’s example in giving refuge to Middle Eastern Christians forced from their homes and their homeland

by IS.

Barnabas Aid’s Operation Safe Havens is flying Christian families from Syria and Iraq to settle in peace and safety in Australia Wednesday 10 A British father has been banned by a court order from taking his nine-year-old son inside any Christian building. The boy’s parents are divorced and his mother, a devout Muslim, applied for the court order, which also decrees that the boy’s father must give his son only halal food. The father is a nonpracticing Muslim who often attends events at a local church. He wants

his son to be able choose his religion for himself and to see that Christians are not the “heartless and immoral” people that he himself had been told as a child. Pray that this court order may be lifted very soon and that the young boy will choose to follow Jesus Christ.

Friday 12 Christians who have sought refuge in Sweden are not necessarily safe from persecution.

Many cases are being reported of threats to Christian asylum-seekers from the Muslim asylum-seekers they are housed with. Some have had to flee the “shelters” and find accommodation in churches or elsewhere. The situation is widely recognized by those who work in the shelters, the police, other authorities and even some parliamentarians. However, Anders Danielsson, director general of the Swedish Migration Board, has refused to consider giving Christian asylum-seekers separate housing, even though he recognizes their vulnerability. Pray that Mr.

Saturday 13 Four Middle Eastern Bible translators were killed in an attack when Islamic militants stormed their office and sprayed bullets around. Two were shot dead and the other two were bludgeoned to death with the guns after the ammunition was finished. Books, translation materials, and equipment were burnt and destroyed. “The remaining translation team have decided to re-double their efforts to translate, publish, and print God’s Word for these eight language communities,” said a statement by Wycliffe Associates. Praise God for their determination and pray that He will enable them to complete their task.

Sunday 14 Loving Heavenly Father, we pray today for Your children living in Saudi Arabia where the law forbids them to show publicly in any way that they love and follow the Lord Jesus.

Please open the way for them to meet with each other, that they may know the encouragement of fellowship with other believers and have opportunity to learn and grow in their faith. Keep them from fear and protect them from danger. Many are working in harsh conditions to earn money for families left behind in their homeland. Please comfort them in their loneliness and strengthen them to endure. We pray in the Name of Christ.

Monday 15 “The recent war left its scars in Gaza, by the loss of human life and the immense destruction of many buildings. The wounds and misfortunes of Gaza that we face and are called to heal are many.

The problems of lack of medicines,

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Thursday 11 The Spanish government has approved new guidelines for teaching Islam in government schools.

Written by the Islamic Commission of Spain, the guidelines state that 3 to 6 year olds must learn the shahada (Islamic creed) and 6 to 12 year olds must recite it in perfect Arabic and Spanish. Many Muslims believe that simply speaking the words of the shahada makes you a Muslim, and would therefore see this as a program to convert every Spanish child to Islam. Pray that the eyes of the Spanish government will be opened to the implications of the guidelines and their decision will be reversed.

Danielsson will change his mind before lives are lost.

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clothing, hunger and thirst. . .

Without the power from above (our Lord) and without your support, it was impossible to assist our people.”

This was a message from a church leader in Gaza to Barnabas Aid earlier this year. As Barnabas continues to support the tiny and beleaguered Christian minority there, please pray that they may be encouraged in their faith as well as protected from harm.

Tuesday 16 Christians in the Central African Republic ask prayer for their new government. The Islamic rebel group Seleka, who had seized power in a violent coup on March 24, 2013 and were then replaced for a while with a transitional government, have been reluctant to accept the new permanent government and are demanding more representation in it.

Two-thirds of the hinterland is under Seleka occupation and its leaders are talking of dividing the country. Pray that the government will be able to maintain peace, unity, and stability in this Christian-majority country.

Wednesday 17 “We need to pray for the future of the Church,” wrote a Ugandan Christian leader to Barnabas Aid in April. He explained how Christians were being persecuted for making the slightest criticism of Islam although Muslims were never condemned for expressing strongly anti-Christian views. He saw this situation as leading to fear in the Church and the possibility that Christians would compromise their faith, allowing Islam to be “imposed” on them. Pray that every Ugandan Christian will be determined that they and their households will serve the Lord (Joshua 24:15).

Thursday 18 U.M. is a very outspoken Ugandan Christian leader from a Muslim background who has had twelve attempts on his life and has been permanently maimed. One of his great concerns is the fact that Muslims are so active in Ugandan politics and hold many positions in the government. Muslims have also started sponsoring Christian MPs in exchange for those MPs using their position to promote an Islamic agenda.

Pray that U.M. may be protected and kept safe from those who wish to harm and silence him. Ask too that Christians whom the Lord is calling to be involved in politics will be honest and diligent, seeking at all times the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.

Friday 19 Tanzanian Christians are thankful to God that President John Magufuli, in his first nine months in office, has shown that he is trying to return Tanzania back to a secular state with equal treatment for followers

Ugandan Christians

of all religions. Although President Magufuli is a Christian, his top aides are Muslims as are the vice-president and prime minister of this 60% Christian country and the country has been seeing a rapid process of Islamization in recent years. Pray that President Magufuli may have a discerning heart to govern the people of Tanzania, and be able, in this complex situation, to distinguish between right and wrong courses of action (1 Kings 3:9).

Sunday 21 Heavenly Father, we ask that You will pour Your strength into Your followers in many parts of the world who live daily with threats, intimidation, and the risk of violence, just because of their love for You. We ask You to steady the knees that give way and to say to those with fearful hearts, “Do not fear; your God will come.” Please bless them with a faith that grows day by day, a hope that is steadfast and certain, and a peace that passes understanding. We ask in the Name of Jesus Christ. (Isaiah 35:3-4)

Tuesday 23 Late last year the tiny West African state of the Gambia was declared by its president to be an Islamic state. The population is 90% Muslim, and there has been a history of good relations between Muslims and the minority Christians and followers of traditional African religions. Being an Islamic state is very different from simply being a Muslim-majority country, and implies that the Gambia will model itself on the early Islamic state ruled

by Muhammad. President Jammeh hastened, however, to reassure non-Muslims, saying that Christians would be “given their due respect” and the celebration of Christmas would continue. The question remains what “due respect” may come to mean if sharia is imposed, according to which Christians have a lesser status than Muslims. Pray that the religious liberty and human rights of all Gambian citizens will be fully preserved.

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Saturday 20 Movements are developing in Muslim-majority parts of Tanzania, such as Lindi, called “Wash Infidels from Muslim Lands.” Christian leaders have tried in vain to lobby the government to have Christians appointed as Regional Administration Secretaries to administer these regions, so that they could put an end to the Muslim efforts to religiously cleanse the regions of all Christians. Pray that the Lord will have His hand over Tanzania to protect His people from those who want to eliminate the Christian presence.

Monday 22 On May 19, the Nigerian military freed 97 women and children who had been kidnapped

by Boko Haram. Praise God for this. It was thought at first that one or two of them were from the group of 200+ girls kidnapped from their school Chibok on April 14, 2014, but later it turned out that they had been kidnapped on other occasions.

Continue to lift up in your prayers not only the Chibok school-girls but an estimated 3,000 other people who have been abducted by Boko Haram.

Pray that the Nigerian army will be successful in finding and rescuing them and that in the meantime their faith in Christ will not fail, even though outwardly they may be forced to live as Muslims.

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Wednesday 24 A debate has been raging in Liberia as to whether or not it should officially become a Christian state. However, after more than a year of discussion, the proposal was dropped from the House of Representatives’ list of recommended legislative action in May. Muslims naturally opposed the idea, and there were fears of violence, the last thing Liberia needs after a long and bloody civil war. According to the 2008 census, Liberia is 86% Christian and 12% Muslim. However there are recent reports of a large influx of Muslims from the Mandingo (Mandinka) tribe, crossing the border from neighboring Guinea. Currently the constitution separates church from state and provides for freedom of religion. Pray for peace, stability, and equality for all Liberians.

Thursday 25 The Allied Democratic Forces, also known as Muslim Defence International, are a violent Islamist group who were expelled from Uganda and then set up their base in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). They have carried out numerous bloody attacks on the mainly Christian population of that part of DRC amongst whom they now live, and are suspected to have been responsible for an attack on May 3, in which 16 people were killed by machete or axe. The death toll reportedly rose later to 34 as the seriously wounded succumbed to their injuries. Ask God to protect His people and give them the grace to forgive their enemies and respond in a Christ-like way.

Friday 26 “Cover the way with flowers, clap your hands. Jesus

Christ is on the way! Dance together and be kind to each other. Jesus Christ is on the way!”

Iranian Christians from a Muslim background have composed many wonderful worship songs in Farsi, their mother tongue, often focusing on their love for Jesus and how they look forward to His return. They face constant harassment, and many serve time in prison because of their conversion and their ministry.

Pray that their love for the Lord will sustain them and enable them to keep singing (Acts 16:25).

Saturday 27 Vietnamese pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh and his wife Tran Thi Hong are activists, working for religious liberty, and human rights. Mrs Tran was arrested, questioned, beaten, and mistreated four times in April and May, including, for example, having chopsticks forced into her mouth.

It appears that this harassment was because she had met with the US Ambassador-at-Large on International Religious Freedom.

Meanwhile Pastor Nguyen is in prison, serving an 11- year sentence.

Pray that this brave couple, who are striving so hard for justice and freedom for others, may be granted it for themselves.

Sunday 28 Dear Lord, we rejoice to remember that You are all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful. We bring to you the country of North Korea, so closed and mysterious to us but fully open to You. Please help its hungry and oppressed people. Thank you that You know every detail of the lives of the persecuted Christians, that their tears are recorded on Your scroll.

Please strengthen them day by day

and moment by moment. May their lives bring You glory through their patient endurance (Psalm 56:8).

Barnabas Aid supports Christian-run bakeries in North Korea which provide free bread for children

Tuesday 30 The Indonesian authorities opened fire on a peaceful Christian prayer meeting in Timika, West Papua, on April 5 and went on to arrest about a dozen of those present. Many West Papuans would like to be independent from Indonesia, not least because their province is about 80% Christian, whereas Indonesia has the largest Muslim population in the world.

The prayer meeting followed a march calling for a referendum on independence. Pray that the Lord will guide the Christians of West Papua, as they long to live without harassment in a Christian-majority context, that they will know what His will is for their future.

Wednesday 31 The closing date for Barnabas Aid’s petition on the genocide of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East is today (but forms sent in late can be accepted for the next few weeks).

Please pray that it will be effective in prompting many governments to acknowledge the intention of the Islamic State group to “cleanse” its territory of all non-Muslims and their culture, and that they will then act on this decision.

July/August 2016 15

Monday 29 Christians in Malaysia are encouraged by news from Sarawak, the only Christian-majority state in their country. Roneey Anak Rebit (aged 41) was born to Christian parents who converted to Islam when he was eight, which meant that in law he was considered to have converted too. But in 1999 he was baptized and began a legal battle to be registered as a Christian. In March this year the High Court in Sarawak’s capital, Kuching, ruled that the word “Islam” could be removed from Roneey’s identity card. In April the Sarawak National Registration Department appealed against the court ruling, but in May they withdrew their appeal, allowing the decision in favor of Roneey to stand. Pray that this legal precedent will help many other

Malaysian Muslims who have chosen to follow Christ.

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Front cover: Young Christians in a restrictive Central Asian country at a conference funded

by Barnabas. © Barnabas Aid 2016