Prayer List for April 19, 2009

Sunday, please pray for Chinese Christian, Shi Weihan. “Shi Weihan is scheduled to stand trial on Thursday, April 9 at 9 a.m. local time at the People’s Court of Haidan District, Beijing. Shi has been in prison since March 19, 2008 for printing and distributing Christian books and Bibles without government permission. The official charge is for ‘illegal business practices,’ however, a judge has held, at least twice, that there is not sufficient evidence to convict him on this charge. Nevertheless, police have continued to hold Shi Weihan in custody in order collect additional evidence hoping to gain a conviction.” (Open Doors)

Monday, please pray for the construction of a church in Bangladesh. Though Bangladesh is supposed to have freedom of religion, “Authorities called for a five-month halt to construction of a church in northern Bangladesh, for fear of huge conversions. The construction of the Ishai Fellowship Church began in early November 2008, but after Muslims protested, the mayor halted construction. ‘The local Muslims fired all the cylinders of the society to stop building a church in this vicinity. They want me not to work for the expansion of the Kingdom of God here. They persuaded the city council authority to stop [construction of] the church,’ Mashi, a pastor of Calvary Ishai Fellowship, told Compass. ‘The mayor of the city council told me that I did not have any building plan and permission from them to build a house here, so I should stop the construction work.’” (Open Doors)

Tuesday, please praise God for the release of Brother Sani. “When a Nigerian court sentenced him to three years in jail back in late 2007, Brother Sani cried out to God for help. And thankfully, the Lord heard his cry. Today, having served less than half his sentence, Sani is a free man!” (Open Doors)

Wednesday, please praise God that the Georgia House of Representatives has “passed a resolution in favor of home schoolers in Germany. Home schoolers in that country face hefty fines and the potential loss of their kids if they home school. One German family, the Romeikes, are seeking asylum in the U.S. after facing persecution for home schooling.” (OneNewsNow)

Thursday, please pray for Iranian Christians, Brother Mohsen, his wife Feresthe, and their 12-year-old son. Iranian police arrested Mohsen for his conversion to Christianity from Islam and to get the names of his contacts. After torture which damaged his face, spinal cord, and teeth, he became so ill that the police released him. He and his family escaped to Turkey where they applied to the UN for refugee status. It can be very difficult for those fleeing “Islamic justice” to receive approval from the UN because some of the worst oppressor governments serve on the hearing committees and they cover for one another’s oppression. (Open Doors, me)

Friday, please praise God that Make Way Partners evangelist, Philip, has been released in Sudan and has about 70 mostly Muslims attending his services in Darfur. Please pray that the organization’s supply trucks will be released without ransom from a group in Juba, Sudan. (Make Way Partners)

Saturday, please praise God for the release of a Christian convert in Saudi Arabia. “On March 28, Hamoud Bin Saleh, a Saudi Christian arrested in January for writing about his conversion from Islam and criticizing the Saudi kingdom's crackdown on individual rights, was released from prison, according to Compass Direct News. Saleh is reportedly forbidden to travel outside the country or appear in the media. In a recent post on his blog, Saleh attributed his release to several human rights groups that campaigned on his behalf. ‘A nation which lives in this system cannot guarantee the safety of its individuals,’ he blogged, according to Compass Direct. In Saudi Arabia the penalty for converting from Islam, also called apostasy, is death. Still, in recent years, there have been no known cases of Saudis formally been convicted and sentenced to death.” (Voice of the Martyrs, Compass Direct News)

North Korea Freedom Week is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC from April 26 - May 2, 2009.

Voice of the Martyrs will be holding a meeting in New Lenox, IL, May 16. For more information, go to www.persecution.com.