Meet the Persecuted

Jonas an Iraqi Muslim who was a prominent leader of a mosque, was approached by some radicals at the mosque and was badgered to hide weapons there for them.  He was afraid to refuse because they threatened him if he didn’t comply.  Jonas’s only recourse was to flee the country.  He went to Greece. 

It was not long before the Greek government told Jonas he would be deported back to Iraq.  Fearing for his life, he sought help from a local priest.  This Godly man fought hard for Jonas to be able to stay in Greece, but he failed and Jonas eventually ended up in another country.  Muslims there chided him saying the priest only helped him to coerce him to become a Christian.  Jonas argued back saying that the entire time that the priest was helping, he never asked about his religion, that he was just a good man, not concerned about “forcing” Jonas to become a Christian.

Jonas was surfing the web one day and came across the internet forum hosted by our co-worker, Samuel.  Jonas posted that he was fed up with Islam, but a few minutes later he retracted that posting and said he was a believing Muslim.  When Samuel asked him via the web why the retraction, Jonas replied that he was afraid that he was making a mistake by saying what he really thinks in a public forum.  Samuel continued to “chat” with him for some time and Jonas became a believer in Jesus Christ. 

Now, even more fearful of returning to Iraq because he would be deemed a traitor to Islam, Jonas immigrated to yet to another country where he continued to chat with Samuel over the internet.  Jonas was isolated from the Muslim majority population and had no Christian friends.  Samuel searched the internet for an evangelical church near where Jonas was living.  Samuel contacted the pastor, who it turned out was like Jonas, from a Muslim upbringing.  This gracious pastor told Samuel that he would welcome Jonas with open arms.  God has provided a support network, a new family, the Body of Christ for Jonas.

Please pray for:

Please pray for Jonas that he would grow in his new found faith and that he will remain faithful in the midst of pressure to become Muslim again.

To Read more Meet the Persecuted stories click here.

On the Front Lines

Algeria: Christians Continue in Spite of Burnt Church Building

ISTANBUL, January 21 (CDN) — Members of a church in Algeria gathered to worship last Saturday (Jan. 16) in their new building despite a protest, vandalism and a fire that damaged the building the previous weekend. Local Muslims bent on running the congregation out of the neighborhood set fires inside and outside the building on Jan. 9. Before setting it on fire, the assailants ransacked the church building. The perpetrators damaged everything within the new building, including electrical appliances. 
 
The protests against the new church building were unique in the region where the majority of Algeria’s Christians live.The pastor of the church said that the fellowship of 300 members had constructed the church building in the neighborhood in order to accommodate their growing needs. They started meeting there in early November of last year. 
 
A short time after the first services, they received a notice from police to stop activities, as local residents had objected to their presence in their neighborhood. The pastor said he refused to sign the notice that police handed to him. Some young people threw rocks at the new building, he said. 
 
Troubles ramped up on Dec. 26, when church’s members gathered for their Saturday morning service. More than 20 local Muslims blocked the entrance to the building, keeping church members from entering. Two days later, some of the protestors broke into the new building and stole the church microphones and speakers. 
 
The following Saturday (Jan. 2), a group of protestors entered the building and stopped the service. That day church leaders had instructed children and women to stay home for their safety. After protestors became violent and threatened the pastor, church members present decided to close the building so as to avoid more problems.
 
In the most recent incident, on Jan. 9 protestors entered the building and started to vandalize it, leaving after police arrived. But they returned in the evening to burn anything that they could, including furniture, appliances, Bibles, hymnbooks and a cross. Nothing inside the building was left standing. 
 
“The devastation of our church which coincides with events in Egypt where they burned churches this month, leads us to ask questions about the international Islamists,” Mustapha Krim, president of the Protestant Church of Algeria told Algerian daily, El Watan last week. “Is this an example continuing here? The Islam of our parents is nothing compared to today’s political Islam. To the indifference of the authorities, it manipulates people against Christians.” 
 
Christian leaders have said authorities have not taken appropriate steps to protect the church or bring justice to their claims. The church has filed half a dozen complaints with police on attacks against them in the last two months. Krim told The Associated Press last week that authorities don’t want to intervene out of fear of Islamist retaliation.
  
According to a government decree dating back to June 2007, local officials can prohibit non-Muslim activities if they constitute a danger to the public order or if religious adherents move from their originally planned location, El Watan reported.  
 
Some Protestants have estimated the number of Algeria’s Christians at as many as 65,000, though the U.S. State Department cites unofficial estimates of Christians and Jews combined as ranging from 12,000 to 40,000. 
 
END

Please pray for the Christians in Algeria to continue to press forward in Jesus's name. Pray for Muslims to recognize who Jesus truly is and follow Him.

The Word of God

The Bible, the Word of God is powerful.  It also carries a stigma in the Muslim world. Many Muslims hate it because it is Christian and they believe that it was changed and corrupted in the first century.

Over the years that stigma caused problems for us.  We ship Bibles to locations within a country using local carrier companies.  What this means is that we hire local shippers to put the Bibles on trucks and carry them to remote areas.  Of course, since the carrier companies are Muslim, we don't tell them what is in the boxes. 

On a delivery sometime ago, one of the shipping employees decided to see what was in the boxes and discovered the Bibles.  This was then reported to the owner of the shipping company.  When our coworker brought another 20 boxes of Bibles to the company two weeks later, he was told that they would not ship Bibles.

These Bibles were sorely needed so another Christian coworker, a woman, took the boxes to the shipping company.  No one knew her there and so they accepted her 20 boxes.  She paid and was given a receipt.  Then the owner discovered that the boxes contained Bibles but it was too late to stop the shipment and only by the grace of God and the blinding of eyes, were the Bibles shipped.  However, she was told never to come back.

Two weeks later, more Bibles needed to be shipped so she took her boxes and went to another shipping company.  When they asked what the boxes contained, she simply said in a quiet voice, "goods".  Being a woman, they simply accepted her explanation. 

As she was being issued the shipping receipt, a call came into this new shipping office from the original shipping company, warning the new company to watch out for a woman with Bibles.  It was too late, the Bibles had been shipped. 

There are only two shipping companies in this large city that travel to the areas where the Bibles need to go.  Both refused to take Bibles.  Pray that God will open the doors for new, creative ways to get the Bibles into the hands of those who so desperately need them.

Please pray for the Word of God to reach and change the world.