Release Prayer Shield - March/April 2016

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MARCH/APRIL 2016 Christians witness in secret in an Iranian park.

March 2016

Iran

Heavenly Father,

Tuesday 1: It’s estimated

Thank you that Jesus showed us how to forgive as he was dying on the cross. And thank you that the risen Lord appeared to the persecutorin-chief, Saul, and turned his life around.

Please do the same today with those who persecute your people. Show mercy, Lord. And bring such revelation and conviction that those filled with hate will be transformed into followers of your Son, Jesus.

Amen.

that about 90 Christians are still in detention in Iran. Pray for their release. Ask God to sustain and strengthen them through their ordeal.

Wednesday 2: Praise God for the release of Pastor Saeed Abedini, freed from jail in January as part of a US-Iranian prisoner swap. Ask God to be with him and his family as they readjust.

Thursday 3: Maryam Naghash-Zargaran is in Tehran’s Evin prison, serving a four-year sentence for her faith: she has suffered abuse and ill health.

Friday 4: Pastor Behnam Irani has been held since 2011 and is due to be released this October. He has reportedly been very ill and suffered abuse.

Saturday 5: Pray for Pastor

Amin Khaki and three friends who were arrested in Shoush, and convicted of ‘spreading Christianity’ last October. They are appealing this conviction.

Sunday 6: Ask God to

strengthen His people in Iran, so that they are a powerful witness to His love.

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Sri Lanka Monday 7: Pray that Christians’ religious rights will be upheld in Sri Lanka. Buddhist monks recently tried to prevent a Christian burial in Puttalam district; it took place under police guard as opponents surrounded the cemetery.

Tuesday 8: Pray for wisdom for a pastor in Kurunegala district.

Buddhist monks threatened to attack him if he continued church activities; when the pastor complained to police, they banned him from holding any more services.

Wednesday 9: Buddhists have

threatened to burn down a church in Gampah district if Christian services continue close to a Buddhist temple.

Police ordered the church to close but a court overruled that order.

Thursday 10: Pray that God

will guide a Methodist pastor in Matara district: locals have ordered him to stop conducting Christian services immediately – in private, as well as in public.

Friday 11: Buddhist monks

in Ampara district accused a pastor of converting Buddhists forcibly. They used loudspeakers to say they would attack the church.

Saturday 12: Pray that

Sri Lanka’s pastors will courageously maintain their Christian witness – and that police will keep the peace and refuse to be intimidated.

A Release associate ministry delivers Christian materials to build the Ugandan church.

Uganda Sunday 13: Pray for wisdom and strength for Christians in mainly Muslim areas of eastern Uganda who are increasingly targeted for attack.

Monday 14: Pastor Bongo Martin was brutally killed when he and other church members resisted local Muslims’ efforts to take over their land in Namudumba district. Ask God to comfort his family.

Tuesday 15: Pray for the

relatives of five Christians in Budaka district who died after eating food deliberately laced with pesticide, following a Bible study group in Kachomo.

Wednesday 16: Three children have been kidnapped in eastern Uganda – because their father, Madengho Badir,

turned to Christ. Madengho says the kidnappers are trying to force him back to Islam.

Thursday 17: A policeman who converted from Islam to Christianity was shot dead in Komodo. Extremists called him out on false pretences to settle a land dispute – then killed him.

Friday 18: Pentecostal Christian

Patrick Ojangole was murdered in east Uganda. He had been caring for children disowned by their families for leaving Islam.

His attackers accused him of ‘changing our children to your religion’.

Saturday 19: Please pray for

Patrick’s family – and for the ten village children he had been caring for who have been abandoned by their families (see above). Pray that other Christians will come forward to look after the children.

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North Korea Sunday 20: Pray for North Korean defectors who set out on the hazardous journey they hope will lead to freedom. Pray that many more, like Hyon-Suk (see Release, pages 12-13), will find refuge abroad.

Monday 21: People smugglers helped Hyon-Suk to escape – but then tried to sell her family into slavery. Thank God for her testimony: ‘I prayed for my family’s safety and God really protected us.

Our journey to South Korea would have been impossible without His guidance.’

Tuesday 22: Koreans in

China took care of HyonSuk. Pray that Chinese and North Korean Christians will continue to offer refugees shelter. Pray that these refugees find the Lord through their compassion.

Wednesday 23: Hyon-Suk’s

parents were murdered in North Korea because they were Christians. Christians are targeted by the authorities in North Korea as enemies of the state. Pray God will make His people invisible to officials and cause His church in North Korea to grow.

Thursday 24: Hyon-Suk’s

oldest son died of malnutrition.

Severe hardships in North Korea are causing many to look for Christ and to seek hope. Pray they will find God.

Eritrea Friday 25: On Good Friday,

as we remember Jesus’ darkest hour, we pray for the many Christians, from Eritrea and other troubled nations, who have had to flee their country, often taking huge risks and facing immense danger to reach a place of safety.

Saturday 26: Temesgen was unjustly imprisoned in Eritrea a few days after he married Amleset (see Release, pages 6-7). He became a Christian behind bars. On his release, they fled the country and now live in a refugee camp in Ethiopia.

Sunday 27: As we celebrate

our Lord’s resurrection on Easter Sunday, pray that the many refugees from Eritrea will encounter the risen Christ and experience their own resurrection.

Monday 28: Continue to pray for the many Eritrean Christian refugees, many of whom are in camps in Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan, or seeking asylum in Europe.

Tuesday 29: Pray for

Christians in Eritrea who are conscientious objectors to military conscription on religious grounds – and yet have no means of opting out.

Conscription, which is often indefinite in Eritrea, is a key reason why so many Eritreans are leaving their homeland.

Wednesday 30: Pray for the release of the estimated 300 Eritrean Christians still detained arbitrarily, often in appalling conditions.

Thursday 31: Pray that God

Many North Korean defectors like this woman are determined to bring the gospel to their homeland.

will fill prisoners of faith in Eritrea afresh with the Holy Spirit and help them lead many of their fellow inmates and guards to Christ.

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April 2016 China Friday 1: Pray for Pastor

Yang Hua of Huoshi Church in Guizhou, and his wife, Wang Hongwu. When police arrested Pastor Yang, they put a black hood over him and bundled him into a van. ‘I can only hand everything to the Lord!’ says Wang.

Saturday 2: Pray for Lou

Nannan and Zhang Hong’En and their families. The two Christians from Xinjiang were jailed for 11 days for giving Bible-based lessons to their children. They were accused of cult activities.

Sunday 3: Pray for five

Christian students in Shandong, who face expulsion from their college for holding a private prayer meeting. Somebody photographed them and gave the pictures to the police.

Monday 4: China has been

cracking down on house churches in Guangdong.

Churches have been raided and officials have been pressuring members to join government-sanctioned churches.

‘I can only hand everything to the Lord!’

Wang Hongwu, wife of imprisoned pastor Yang Hua, Guizhou

Du Hongbo holds photos of his wife, Cheng Jie, who is in jail because officials objected to her kindergarten’s publications.

Tuesday 5: Officials in Guangdong province have forced Huaqiao City Church out of its premises, by pressuring its landlord to end its lease. Others have refused to rent out property to the church.

Friday 8: Chinese church leader and activist Hu Shigen was formally arrested in January after nearly six months in detention. He was arrested on suspicion of ‘subversion of state power’.

Wednesday 6: Huaqiu

of a church-run kindergarten in Liuzhou, Guangxi, who are in prison after being convicted of ‘illegal business operations’, including director Cheng Jie (see photo). They were accused of publishing and selling teaching materials for profit, claims which they deny.

Church in Tongzi county, Guizhou, appears to have lost a long legal battle against officials’ claims that it is illegal and its property should be seized. Church members insist it was officially registered.

Thursday 7: Police in Xinjiang province have accused a house church in Yining of being ‘unregistered’ and its members of ‘illegal activities’. Three members were detained recently for almost a month.

Saturday 9: Pray for the staff

Sunday 10: Pray for churches

in Zhejiang province where officials are continuing their demolition and cross-removal campaign. Crosses were removed from Nanhu Church and Dongzhuang Church in January.

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Nigeria Monday 11: Fulani militants

recently killed 15 Christians in Hwak Kwata-Zawan village, Plateau state – including people who had already fled from violence.

Tuesday 12: Rose Monday

died in the attack on Hwak Kwata-Zawan (above), trying to save her three grandchildren. Two were killed. Pray for their fiveyear-old sister, Anna, who suffered gunshot wounds.

Wednesday 13: Pray for

Gyang Christopher Choji.

He managed to escape the Fulani gunmen who attacked Hwak Kwata-Zawan, but his son, daughter and her entire family were killed.

Thursday 14: Boko Haram

has been declared the world’s deadliest terror group by the

US Institute of Economics and Peace. The latest figures show a 300 per cent increase in the number of deaths caused by this group over a 12-month period. Pray that Christians will walk closely with the Lord as their protector.

Monday 18: The Church of

Friday 15: Pray for the political will to improve security for Christians, who face a threat from both Boko Haram, which has allied with Islamic State, and Fulani militants, who want to seize their land.

Kenya

Saturday 16: In 2015, Boko

Haram destroyed 1,000 schools and universities. Many were run by Christians.

Sunday 17: Boko Haram violence is causing thousands to flee their homes and seek shelter in camps for the displaced. Many are Christians.

Some camps have been targeted by suicide bombers.

the Brethren in Nigeria has more than a million members.

Some 700,000 have been displaced by violence and more than 8,000 have been killed. Pray that God will give them courage.

Tuesday 19: Pray for Kenyans who turn to Christ to take courage and walk closely with Jesus. Christians with a Muslim background are a particular target for attack.

Wednesday 20: Please pray for Hassan Ali, a convert to Christianity, who has had to flee his home in Lamu County for fear of being killed.

Muslim relatives have taken his wife and two children.

Thursday 21: Islamist

extremists set fire to two church buildings in Tiribe near Mombasa. Faith Victory Church now meets in a tent, and Holistic Church holds services outside – under police protection.

Friday 22: Praise God for the

courage of Muslim passengers on a bus ambushed by alShabaab near El Wak village, north-east Kenya. When militants tried to separate Christians from the Muslims for execution, Muslims told the assailants to kill everyone or leave them in peace. The attackers left.

Saturday 23: Pray for Women pray after surviving a violent attack on their village in Plateau, Nigeria, in 2010.

Christians in Mandera who were recently targeted for attack by local Muslims

prayershield Thursday 28: Pastors Kowa Shamaal and Hassan Abdelrahim were arrested in December after objecting to the demolition of Sudan Church of Christ property.

Friday 29: Pray that the Government of Sudan will end its crackdown on church leaders.

Saturday 30: Pray that Sudanese officials will start to see Christians as good citizens, not trouble-makers.

Survivors of extremist attacks on Lamu County, Kenya, in 2014 now live in fear of their lives.

angered by the Kenyan military mistakenly killing two Somalis suspected of being members of al-Shabaab.

Sunday 24: Near Mpeketoni

town on Kenya’s coast, a truck worker and two policemen were killed by suspected alShabaab gunmen in an attack on two lorries owned by Christians.

Monday 25: Pray for

Christians (such as those pictured) trying to resettle in Lamu County after attacks in 2014 by al-Shabaab. Recent violence has left them ‘fearing for their lives’.

Sudan Tuesday 26: A court in Sudan

has cleared Pastor Hafez Mengisto of Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church of charges relating to his attempts to defend his church against demolition. Ask God to protect him.

Wednesday 27: Pray for the

release of Telahoon Nogose Kassa, head of discipleship at Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church. He was detained in January, after opposing government attempts to sell off church property.

Lord Jesus, Just as the face of the first Christian martyr, Stephen, was radiant under persecution, I pray that those who suffer for you today will be radiant with your presence and your glory. May their faces reflect your love, your goodness and your mercy even to those who persecute them. And may the lives of their oppressors be impacted by seeing your glory (2 Corinthians 3:18).

In your precious name, Amen. © Release International 2016

For more information on the countries where Release works, go to the ‘Country profiles’ page at releaseinternational.org Sources: Associated Press; China Aid; Christian Solidarity Worldwide; Human Rights Watch; Middle East Concern; Morning Star News; Release partners; Reuters; US Institute of Economics and Peace; VOM USA.

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