You can email us HERE. Click HERE to contact us

   

30-Jul-2002

Mission Network News reports these stories of Christians suffering for their faith.

Uganda:

Aid convoy comes under fire.

A wave of attacks on villages by guerilla soldiers in northern Uganda, is creating more internal displacement and straining ongoing relief work in the region. Among the groups affected, World Vision International. World Vision’s Robby Muhumuza describes what happened to one of their convoys recently. "They fell into an ambush by the Lord’s Resistance Army. The leading vehicle was blown up, and a number of people were killed. The World Vision vehicle was next in line. Bullets ripped through the windscreen and through the bonnet, [but] miraculously, God was able to protect all the staff of World Vision." Muhumuza says they’ve taken more security precautions since the ambush. He asks people to pray for their ministry. "The people in Northern Uganda are very hungry for the Gospel. They’re desperate because they’re concerned about the future and God’s intervention. So in times when we have the teams ready, people are more appreciative and eager to hear the Gospel and believe."

USA:

Government drags out payment to missionary widow.

The U.S. State Department is dragging its feet in paying restitution to family members of slain missionary Ronni Bowers, according to US Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan. "To date they have been doing just about everything that they can to delay this settlement and now even delaying the payment." Hoekstra says the Department claims they don’t have the eight million dollars or the legal authority to pay. A claim he says is untrue. But while this delay is wearing on Ronni’s husband, Jim, he’s still active in reaching the people of Peru. "Jim is going down there to take a look at some of the mission projects that they’re working on, some of the projects the Peruvian government agreed to fund. While he can go to Peru and take a look at the progress that is being made because of the Peruvian’s taking the lead in settling this issue, his own government is still stalling." Ronni and her daughter Charity were killed when the plane they were riding in was shot down by government fighters over Peru in April 2001.

Indonesia:

Terrorists terrorizing Christians again.

Christian Aid Missions asking Christians around the world to pray for believers in Indonesia. According to reports from the region, boat-loads of Laskar Jihad terrorists have been entering Halmahera and Sulawesi Islands and stockpiling weapons. Attacks against Christians have also increased. Five homes were destroyed on July 11^th, while 10 Christians were attacked by a mob on July 12^th. More than 500 troops have been sent to the region, but many fear that could incite violence more quickly.

Please go to http://www.mnnonline.org to learn more about these stories, missions news, and to hear a weekday audio news cast.

The Voice Of The Martyrs presents these reports.

Ethiopia:

Hundreds assaulted in mob attack.

VOM has learned that, in a massive mob attack on Sunday, July 21 coordinated by local Ethiopian Orthodox church leaders, hundreds of evangelical Christians were assaulted with swords, sticks, and knives in the Ethiopian city of Merhawe, 590 kilometres northwest of Addis Ababa. VOM sources report that one Christian brother was killed and several others severely wounded in the assault. Hundreds of evangelical families have been driven from their homes and are being sheltered in the Full Gospel Church in nearby Bahir Dar. Some of the wounded are in the Bahir Dar hospital.Local church leaders have asked for our assistance and VOM will be travelling to the area to ascertain the needs. VOM’s project coordinator for the region stated, "This massive attack is a clear indication of the situation facing evangelical Christians (in Ethiopia) and the potential danger which might burst any time in every city."

Pakistan:

Christian girl attacked and burned.

On June 15, a young Pakistani Christian girl named Gulnaz (aged 17) of Faisalabad, was attacked with acid for refusing the sexual advances of a group of Muslim men. The Religious Liberty Commission reported that these men, who worked with her, had been insulting her and trying to get her to leave Christianity and embrace Islam. When Gulnaz could not get support from her employer to stop the harassment, she eventually resigned. Before the end of the day, however, she was sexually assaulted by one of the men. When she fought him off, he threatened to get revenge. The following day when Gulnaz went to collect her pay, this man and his friends attacked her with sulphuric acid. She is severely burnt on her face, neck, breasts, arms and legs. Acid was put in her eyes an down her throat. She may die from her injuries, but her parents, who are extremely poor, are under great pressure to accept money and not file charges.

Pakistan:

Mentally unstable man sentenced to death.

A Pakistani man with a history of mental problems was given the death sentence on July 18 for alleged blasphemy that "hurt the feelings of Muslims, Christians and Jews," according to a Lahore court. Anwar Kenneth, 45, sentenced to death by hanging and given a fine of 500,000 rupees ($13,230 CDN) by Lahore Additional Sessions Court Justice Sadaqat Ullah Khan. The judge stated that "apart from his objectionable remarks on Islam," the defendant had also "antagonized the Christians and Jews" by his claims to be Jesus Christ and the king of the Jews. According to reports, Kenneth had written to 608 political and religious leaders, including foreign diplomats in Pakistan, several heads of state, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and local Muslim leaders. The charges were brought against him by a Muslim leader who had received one of Kenneth’s letters. It was well known that Kenneth was mentally unstable and his unorthodox claims spell that out clearly. Recognizing this, Glenn Penner, Communications Officer for The Voice of the Martyrs Canada said, "This is not a man who should be condemned; he should be helped." The question asked by a VOM source remains: "Why was Mr. Kenneth’s state of mental health not established before his conviction?"

China:

Children arrested for religious activities.

Five adults and 25 children were arrested in southeastern China for engaging in religious activities according to Chinese police reports. In a July 21 news release, Zenit reported that one of the adults, Sister Chen Mei, was sentenced without a trial on July 18 to fifteen days in jail. She was charged for leading catechism for children in the village of Dongan, in the Lianjiang district of Fujian province. The other four adults and the children, ages 10-16, received an official warning from the authorities and were released the day of their arrest.

Please check http://www.persecution.net for further information about these stories plus resources to help concerned Christians help the persecuted believers.

Keston News Service presents these persecution incidents.

Russia:

Are religious organs equal before the law?

Russia’s 1993 Constitution declares that the country is a secular state, and that religious associations are equal before the law. Yet lately, there have been complaints that Russia’s state institutions are becoming markedly less secular and that, in the sphere of social service, the law is not being applied to all religious organisations in equal measure. Keston News Service recently questioned representatives of several religious groups in the two Volga republics of Tatarstan and Mari-El about their experiences in the fields of state education and prison ministry. They reported that the attitudes of the authorities in different places to the contributions they made (or tried to make) did indeed vary widely.

Azerbaijan:

When can deported adventists return?

More than six weeks after being expelled from Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhichevan, an Adventist family have been told that they will soon be able to return home. Pastor Vahid Nagiev and his wife Keklik Kerimovaold Keston News Service on 24 July that an official of the State Committee for Relations with Religious Organisations had sent letters to "all the relevant parties" and would tell them when they and their children could go home. Speaking to Keston the same day, the official, Samed Bairamzade, denied that his office would be contacting the family, insisting that they could return home at any time. He also denied that anyone had expelled them from Nakhichevan. Asked by Keston about the registration application of the Nakhichevan Adventist church, led by the Nagiev family, an official at the State Committee’s registration department refused to discuss it and put the phone down.

Russia:

Evangelicals resent enforced centralisation.

Russia’s 1997 law on religion strengthened the "vertical of power" in religious life, favouring confessions with an established hierarchical structure - first and foremost, Orthodoxy. For the many Protestant congregations founded as a result of the new freedoms in the early 1990s, there was only one way to retain legal status - to join one of the centralised Protestant church unions. However, speaking recently to Protestant representatives at provincial level in Tatarstan and Mari-El, two republics of the Russian Federation on the Volga River east of Moscow, Keston News Service found considerable resentment at what one interviewee described as an "enforced membership of unions due to a discriminatory law." Joining a union can be expensive, Keston heard, as well as necessitating a change in a church’s statute.

Please see http://www.keston.org to learn about religious persecution in communist and post communist lands.

Yours,

Bruce Atchison: electronic music composer, writer, Jesus freak, and lover of rabbits. Please visit my site at http://gideon.www2.50megs.com Dominion Day Enterprises, P.O. Box 188, Radway, Alberta, Canada, T0A 2V0.

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca

   

email: ve6xtc@freenet.edmonton.ab.ca