Solidarity

The writer of Hebrews reminds us: “Remem­ber those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mis­treated, since you also are in the body.” (Hebrews 13:3)

Now I don’t know of any resource for martrys, pris­on­ers, and other per­se­cuted Chris­tians in the US (any­one?), but good places to find infor­ma­tion on Chris­tians world-wide is http://persecution.com/. An esti­mated 150,000 Chris­tians are mar­tyred each year.

Here is some recent news:

VOM News and Prayer Update: Octo­ber 16, 2007
“Through the LORD’s mer­cies we are not con­sumed, because His com­pas­sions fail
not. They are new every morn­ing; great is Your faith­ful­ness. “(Lamen­ta­tions
3:22–23)

CHINA
Promi­nent House Church Leader Repeat­edly Beaten by Police – China Aid
Association

On Octo­ber 11, promi­nent house church leader, Hua Huiqi, was repeat­edly
attacked by police at his home. Accord­ing to China Aid Asso­ci­a­tion, “Hua was
read­ing his Bible at his home despite police sur­round­ing his house. He was
sent to Bei­jing Tiantan Hos­pi­tal, because he lost con­scious­ness after
repeated beat­ings from the police.” China’s Pub­lic Secu­rity Bureau (PSB)
recently put Hua under house arrest. PSB offi­cers had been sur­round­ing his
house when they attacked him. Pas­tor Hua’s 77-year-old mother, Shuang
Shuy­ing, remains very ill in prison, serv­ing a two-year sen­tence. VOM
con­tacts say she is being held hostage by police in order to put pres­sure on
Pas­tor Hua to reveal names and infor­ma­tion of believ­ers. Pray for Hua’s
speedy recov­ery and for God to encour­age him. Ask the Holy Spirit to con­vict
his attack­ers and draw them into the knowl­edge of Jesus Christ.
3 John 1: 2; Psalm 107:20  

SUDAN
Sui­cide Bomber Kills Youth, Wounds Oth­ers in Sudanese Church – VOM Sources

On Sep­tem­ber 27, a sui­cide bomber in mil­i­tary cloth­ing det­o­nated a grenade,
killing five youth and crit­i­cally wound­ing four oth­ers, in Sudan’s Upper Nile
state. Accord­ing to The Voice of the Mar­tyrs’ con­tacts in Sudan, “A pas­tor
was hav­ing an overnight ser­vice in Khor­ful­lus town, when an uniden­ti­fied man
walked into the ser­vice and det­o­nated a grenade, killing him­self, five
chil­dren and crit­i­cally wound­ing four oth­ers, includ­ing the pas­tor and his
wife.” VOM con­tacts added that the bomber was dressed in full mil­i­tary
cloth­ing, nor­mally worn by gov­ern­ment offi­cials. VOM is assist­ing fam­i­lies
affected by this tragedy dur­ing this dif­fi­cult time. Pray God com­forts and
encour­ages the fam­i­lies of those killed. Pray for a speedy recov­ery for those
injured.
Psalm 118: 17, Isa­iah 40:31

GAZA STRIP
Gaza Bible Soci­ety Worker Mur­dered – Chris­t­ian Broad­cast­ing Network

On Octo­ber 7, 26-year-old Rami Ayyad’s body was recov­ered near the Teach­ers’
Book­shop in the Pales­tin­ian ter­ri­tory of Gaza where he worked. His body had
stab wounds and bul­let holes. Accord­ing to the Chris­t­ian Broad­cast­ing Net­work
(CBN), Ayyad was kid­napped the day before by an uniden­ti­fied group. CBN
quoted the spokesper­son for the Pales­tin­ian Bible Soci­ety, Simon Azaz­ian, who
said, “We do not know the exact iden­tity of the group, but we know he was
mar­tyred for his faith in Christ.” The report added, “Ayyad told co-workers
he’d noticed a car with no license plates fol­low­ing him. At 6 p.m. (on
Sat­ur­day), his wife received a phone call from him say­ing he’d been taken
cap­tive by a group of peo­ple and would be home late. A sec­ond phone call
relayed the same mes­sage.” Rami is sur­vived by his preg­nant wife and two
young chil­dren. Pray the Holy Spirit com­forts his fam­ily dur­ing this
dif­fi­cult time. Pray Rami’s tes­ti­mony will bring non-believers, espe­cially
his killers, into the knowl­edge of Jesus Christ. Ask God to pro­tect believ­ers
in Gaza.
Psalm 23, Psalm 91

NIGERIA
Chris­tians Killed by Mus­lims; Hun­dreds Dis­placed in Kano, Nige­ria – VOM
Sources

On Sep­tem­ber 28, angry Mus­lims killed 10 Chris­tians and set churches, homes
and busi­nesses on fire in Tudun Wada, in Nigeria’s North­ern state of Kano.
Accord­ing to The Voice of the Mar­tyrs’ con­tacts in Nige­ria, “At 9 a.m.,
Mus­lims began the attacks, set­ting fire to homes and churches. They attacked
and killed any Chris­t­ian they came across.” More than 50 peo­ple were injured,
while more than 500 mem­bers of the minor­ity Chris­t­ian pop­u­la­tion were
dis­placed. VOM con­tacts added, “Mus­lim attack­ers burnt down all eight
churches exist­ing in the com­mu­nity, homes and busi­nesses in the area.“
Chris­tians believe the attack resulted when Mus­lim stu­dents at a gov­ern­ment
sec­ondary school in the area claimed a Chris­t­ian stu­dent drew a car­toon of
the Prophet Muham­mad on the wall of the school’s mosque. VOM con­tacts
reported, “No Chris­t­ian stu­dent would do this, since the school has nearly
2,000 stu­dents and only seven are Chris­t­ian.… [also] the mosque is usu­ally
busy with Mus­lims pray­ing around the clock dur­ing the (Mus­lim) Ramadan
fast­ing sea­son; there­fore, no Chris­t­ian stu­dent would have any way of get­ting
close to the wall of the mosque to make such sketches on the wall.” Pray for
the fam­i­lies of those killed. Pray the Holy Spirit will be their great­est
com­forter. Ask God to encour­age and pro­vide for believ­ers in this area.
Psalm 119:105, Proverbs 3:5, 6

ERITREA
Senior Pas­tor Arrested – VOM Sources

Pas­tor Oqbamichael, a well-known leader of the Kale-Hiwot Church in Eritrea,
was arrested and impris­oned. This was the sec­ond impris­on­ment for the pas­tor
in the past two years. In 2005, he was arrested at a Chris­t­ian wed­ding and
was later released after 10 months in prison, which included soli­tary
con­fine­ment and hard labor in the Sawa Mil­i­tary Camp. The arrest of Pas­tor
Oqbamichael fol­lows the recent arrest of Evan­ge­list Mussie Ezaz, who is also
a min­is­ter in the Kale-Hiwot Church. Pray God sus­tains and strength­ens Pas­tor
Oqbamichael while he is in prison. Pray the Holy Spirit encour­ages his fam­ily
and church. Ask God to pro­tect Chris­tians in Eritrea who are serv­ing Him in
the midst of severe per­se­cu­tion.
John 16:13, 14