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.

Prayer List for March15-21, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the family and congregants of Rev. Fred Winters who was murdered in his church in Maryville, Illinois, USA, in front of his congregants last Sunday by a gunman. (Associated Press, OneNewsNow)

Monday, please pray for seven people who disappeared aboard a missionary plane in Venezuela on February 16. “(S)earches have failed to locate the plane he (Bob Norton) was piloting, which also carried his wife, two adults accompanying two sick children, and a missionary who taught at an Adventist school.” It is believed that the plane crashed in the jungle. (Associated Press)

Tuesday, please pray for the Christians of Garissa, Kenya. “The trouble began in June 2007 when Muslims built a mosque only three meters (10 feet) from the church building in the semi-arid desert town of Garissa. Tensions continued to grow and last September a gang of angry Muslim youths destroyed the church building. Since the attack the church members have been meeting at the town show grounds which offers few trees to protect the congregation from the scorching sun and blistering heat.” (Open Doors)

Wednesday, please pray for a 35-year-old pastor and congregation in eastern India. “In an effort to stop conversions to Christianity, a 25-year-old ailing man on Sunday, March 8th, exploded a crude bomb in a church and shot the pastor. “Rajesh Singh (the perpetrator of the crime) threw a crude bomb through the window of the church, and the sound of the explosion created a chaos in the congregation,” said Inspector Mandal. As members of the church began to run out, he added, Singh came into the building and shot the pastor with a handmade pistol from point-blank range. “In his statement, Singh said he was personally against Christian conversions and wanted to kill the pastor to stop conversions,” Mandal said. The pastor is out of danger. Please pray for his recovery and for the recovery of several women who were burned in the bomb blast. (Open Doors)

Thursday, please pray for two Christian ethnic Uyghurs who have been imprisoned unjustly by the Chinese government. “Osman, a Uyghur Christian, was arrested on November 19, 2007, charged with “revealing state secrets," and sentenced to two years of “re-education through labor.” Osman was severely tortured by police during a previous arrest. His health has rapidly deteriorated while being held in a labor camp and forced to work 12-15 hour days. Alimjan, a Muslim convert to Christianity and house church leader, was arrested on a “national security issue” charge on January 12, 2008. The Xingjian Court cited “insufficient evidence” in Alimjan’s first trial.” You can e-mail the Chinese ambassador through Open Doors’ website at opendoorsusa.org. Click 1 in the upper right corner box. (Open Doors)

Friday, please pray please pray for the people of Sudan. The Islamic government of the north seemed to instigate a return to civil war by sending a militia leader from the north who was guilty of atrocities in the south as a general of the combined army into the south. Fighting killed 26 civilians and 31 soliders of the two sides. Also, since the indictment of the Muslim president of Sudan, Al’ Bashir, by international courts for war crimes, the government has ousted 13 aid groups. Five staff members of Doctors Without Borders have been kidnapped. Much of the aid goes to the south which is divided between animists and Christians and has been devastated by the civil war. Other aid goes to Darfur, which is a Muslim area, but is a different denomination than those in power. (Jamestown Foundation, Associated Press, OneNewsNow, Make Way Partners, me)

Saturday, please pray for a Turkish Bible Society bookstore in Adana, Turkey, that has been repeatedly vandalized. (Voice of the Martyrs)

Prayer List for March 1-7, 2009

Sunday, please pray for the Christians of Iraq. Iraq has been listed as the world’s number 2 worst persecutor of Christians. In some areas radical Muslims have been demanding identity papers at gunpoint and sometimes shooting Christians for no offense other than being Christian. However, God is moving among Muslims in Iraq. Pray that His Spirit will continue to move, that He will place His people under His wing of protection, and that He will bring to repentance or justice those who wantonly murder His people. (International Christian Concern)

Monday, please praise God for and pray for a Christian evangelist named Philip who feels compelled to take the Gospel to a refugee camp in Darfur, Sudan, that holds 22,000 desperate people, primarily women and children. At least two babies a day die of lack of clean water. The people face attacks by the Muslim Janjaweed. Both Muslims and a few Christians live in desperation in this camp. Philip is now in Kenya gathering medicine and aide. Please pray for him and these poor, desperate people. (Make Way Partners)

Tuesday, please praise God that “In one valley that was laid to waste by the Burma Army, two villages have been re-established, as well as a clinic, school and two churches. The KNU (Karen National Union, the ethnic pro-democracy resistance in this area) has built a sprawling community of homes, bamboo offices, sports fields, barracks, and food depots. Almost every organization that assists the Karen people has offices here. Everywhere we went we met hopeful people who continued to work their fields, and, as soon as the Burma Army slows down its operations, they move back into their own villages. While it is true that at any moment the Burma Army could mass enough troops to push the people out, in many areas the Burma Army have yet to do this. THIS IS DUE TO THE TENACITY AND RESILIENCE OF THE PEOPLE AND THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE RESISTANCE.” (Free Burma Rangers)

Wednesday, please pray for the state of Orissa, India, where the government took four months to quell anti-Christian violence committed by radical Hindus. “Since August, more than 60 Christians have been killed; 18,000, wounded; 181 churches, razed or destroyed; 4,500 Christian homes, burned; and more than 50,000 Christians, displaced, of whom more than 30,000 remain in refugee camps or in hiding in the jungle, according to media reports.” The Catholic Archbishop of Orissa charges that the government turned its back on the violence because the people of the area were poor. Archbishop “Cheenath, frustrated over the lack of concern for Orissa, wrote a letter to the Indian prime minister saying that he does not understand how the government can stop the Mumbai attacks in three days, Karnataka in five days, but couldn’t stop the attacks on Christians in Orissa after more than four months.” Some reports also claim that discrimination against Christians occurs in the refugee camps. (Michael Vu, Christian Post, Open Doors, International Christian Concern)

Thursday, please pray for the Christians of Afghanistan. Although the Taliban is not in power, becoming a Christian is dangerous. “Christian groups estimate the number of Afghan Christians ranges between 500 and 8,000—in a country of 30 million Muslims.”(Christian Science Monitor, International Christian Concern)

Friday, please pray for the church in Libya which is so oppressed that the few Christians there do not dare meet in private. “Libya remains one of the world's least reached nations. Among 6,000,000 Libyans live only a handful of known believers….Opportunities for outreach are rare.” (Arab World Ministries)

Saturday, please pray for Arab women who live in repressive and abusive situations. “Christian women are creating these safe environments for Arab women to explore their emotional health. Pray that these meetings would be led by the Holy Spirit. Many times counselors must address demonic influences in Muslim women's lives due to the mingling of Islam with animistic and occult practices. Pray that Christian women would discern such activity and pray with power in Jesus' name to see these women set free. Pray that Muslim women would find peace through the Prince of Peace. Pray for training in counseling for Christian women who are reaching out to Arab women.” (Arab World Ministries)

Prayer List for the Persecuted Church: December 21-27, 2008

Sunday, please pray for the churches of Kabacan, Philippines. “Police in Kabacan, a city in the Philippines, defused the third bomb targeted at a religious institution in three days on Saturday, (Nov,29). The bomb was the second attempt on the Iglesia ni Cristo Church, in addition to another grenade that was thrown at a Jehovah's Witnesses church days earlier. (International Christian Concern, Inquirer.net)

Monday, please pray for the Christians of Iraq. “Thousands of Iraqi Christians have found threats like this under their front doors or stoops, in stairwells or shoved through their courtyard gates: ‘Be informed that we will cut your heads and leave your dead bodies with no organs and no heads in your stores and houses. We know your houses and we know your family. We will kill you one after the other. Depart the Muslim areas.’" (International Christian Concern, Worldmag )

Tuesday, please pray for the Christians of Orissa, India. “The Orissa state government continues to participate in the anti-Christian pogrom by forcing Christians out of relief camps without ensuring their safety once they get back home.” (International Christian Concern, Christian Post)

Wednesday, please pray for the Christians of Orissa, India. “Christians in Orissa state are anticipating Christmas with fear as Hindu extremists have called for a state-wide bandh, or forced shut-down on all sectors of society. This “bandh” is planned for Christmas day and could provide Hindu extremists the pretext for attacking anyone publicly celebrating the birth of Christ. The state’s chief minister has said there should be no such shut-down but stopped short of prohibiting the Hindu extremists’ plan. The Hindu extremist umbrella organization Sangh Parivar has vowed to press ahead with the bandh, reported newspaper Outlook India on Nov. 20.” (Open Doors)

Thursday, please praise God for His wonderful gift, Christ Jesus.

Friday, please pray for 45-year-old Christian convert from Islam in Bangladesh, Laila Begum, and her family. She “said that on Nov. 1 several Muslim neighbors demanded that she pay them money. Begum told Compass Direct News that she had borrowed the equivalent of $30 last year from a Muslim neighbor and this year paid her back with interest. When she told the group of Muslim neighbors that she was not going to pay any more money and they began beating her. ‘“Suddenly they got equipped with sticks, iron rods, knives and machetes,” she said. The family informed local governing council members about the attack, but the council demanded $300 to settle the matter and also threatened them, she said. “The local council officials also told us that if we file any case in the police station, our houses will be burnt to ashes and we will be evicted from the locality.’” (Open Doors)

Saturday, please praise God that “Gospel for Asia missionary, N. Chauhan, has escaped from his kidnappers after being abducted from a marketplace in Madhya Pradesh, India and taken to a secluded house where he was beaten. He was able to escape the next day when his abductors allowed him free to relieve himself. He ran nine miles to the home of a fellow believer, losing his captors in the forest.” (International Christian Concern, ANS)