Prayer List for April 5, 2009

Sunday, please pray for “Christian bookshop owner Shi Weihan (38) (who) has been detained in prison since March 2008. Twice courts have rejected the police’s case against him due to insufficient evidence. Shi’s case was supposed to go before the courts for a third time on March 20th for what we believed would be a critical and decisive hearing. Chinese authorities delayed the court date which means there is still time to send the Chinese Ambassador an email on his behalf.”(Open Doors)

Monday, please pray for a Pakistani-born preacher in London, Reverend Noble Samuel, who was beaten by Muslims and threatened after clashing with Muslims on his television show, the Asian Gospel Show. The Muslim station owner condemned the attacks on air. (Fox News, Open Doors)

Tuesday, please pray for the Christians of Karnataka state, India. “The Hindu nationalist government in the southern state of Karnataka, which recorded the second highest number of attacks on Christians last year, is planning to introduce the kind of ‘anti-conversion’ law that has provided the pretext for anti-Christian violence in other states.” (Open Doors)

Wednesday, please pray for the people of Darfur and southern Sudan. “The four-year conflict between al-Bashir’s jihadist-backed militia (Janjaweed) in the north against the mostly-Christian people of the south has driven more than 2.7 million people into temporary camps, most with nothing but the clothing on their backs. More than 4 million have been killed. Although Sudan signed a peace treaty in January 2005, the country is still in a state of turmoil. Prior to January, the Janjaweed bombed or burned schools, churches, homes, clinics and crops and poisoned wells. Up to 2 million women and children were enslaved. Thousands of those slaves are now being released but have no home to go to.” To worsen matters, the Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir expelled13 aid groups in March following his indictment by the International Criminal Court. He has allowed Make Way Partners, World Relief, and Samaritan’s Purse to stay, but the amount of work has increased for each agency. (Make Way Partners, me)

Thursday, please pray for Pastor Walter Hoye, jailed in California for holding a sign offering aid to women planning to abort their babies outside an abortion clinic. While he is in jail, he is talking to the other prisoners about the Lord. He refused probation because he would have had to promise not to assist women. Pray for him, his family, his church, and for the salvation of inmates. (OneNewsNow, me)

Friday, please pray for “Marzieh Amirizadeh Esmaeilabad and Maryam Rustampoor (who) were arrested by Iranian security forces and labeled ‘anti-government activists,’ according to Farsi Christian News Network (FCNN). Thirty year-old Marzieh and 27-year-old Maryam are being held at Evin Prison, which is notorious for treating women badly. ‘Both women are allowed just a one minute telephone call everyday to their immediate families. Both are unwell and in need of urgent medical attention,’ FCNN reported. During their last call on March 28, Marzieh said that she was suffering from an infection and high fever. She said, ‘I am dying.’” Both are committed Christians. (Voice of the Martyrs, Farsi Christian News Network)

Saturday, please pray for the Christians of Kot Lakha Singh village in Punjab, Pakistan. Following the elopement of a Muslim girl and Christian man, the girl’s father, Noor Husain, took Muslim friends on a rampage through the village, dragging Christian women from their homes and parading them through the streets. They had also desecrated the church. Twenty-one Christian families have left the village, leaving only four. (International Christian Concern)

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