While we will keep this blog up in the foreseeable future, the posting on it will be sporadic at best.  If you would like to stay up-to-date on Remember’s ministry, sign up for our Intercession Alert!  The Intercession Alert will be a monthly e-mail, with “news bulletin” e-mails as persecution news breaks across the world - a tool to remind you to pray for the needs of suffering saints.

Serving with you,

Gabe

We can be certain that no action of the Chinese government will ever abolish the working of God, but our brothers and sisters are hard-pressed.  Pray for them - and pray against the workings of evildoers!

NEWS ALERT: China “Abolishes” House Church Alliance; Major Crackdown Reported

His father was kidnapped first, a terrible, but not uncommon, situation for Christians in their home nation of Iraq.  The kidnappers called Brother J, pretending that they wanted him to go pick up his father for rescue from their evil.  When he went, though, they kidnapped him as well - and that was only the beginning.  They subjected him to unbelievable torture.  Masked militants held a knife to his throat and threatened him with death.  They strapped him down, attached wires to his bare flesh, and ran electric shocks through his body.

These kidnappers held him for three weeks, subjecting him to this brutality.  While all human expectation would be for him to give up, or to become bitter and angry, Brother J did none of those.  In fact, as he  showed us pictures taken shortly after the experience - legs covered with massive bruises from the beatings and electricity - and explained that he still could not walk without pain, he constantly referenced his gratefulness for the love and faithfulness of our God.

All of this torture, he told us, actually brought him closer to God, and taught him to truly pray.  Even more than that, he said, he even had a chance to witness to his kidnappers!  Imagine that - being chained to a chair, being brutally tortured, and witnessing to those evildoers of the eternal plan of salvation!

What a testimony.

But Sharia is not just a system of law with Muslim underpinnings or a general Islamic worldview.  It is an imposition of Islamic values on everyone it controls - Muslim and  Christian alike.  In fact, Sharia puts a very real and overt pressure on any non-Muslim, and stringently denies anyone but a Muslim the freedom of religion.  While Sharia does not make it a de facto crime to simply be a Christian, it makes it a crime to convert from Islam, or to evangelize among Muslims.  In some cases, these “crimes” of converting and witnessing are punishable by death.

But Sharia law is not a static force.  As Islam expands, so does the impact of Sharia’s persecution - and hardline Islamic fundamentalists are determined to spread Islam by any means possible, including violence.  We’ve talked about Nigeria before (link goes to PDF document), where in recent years the Islamic incursion has brought very real terror and destruction to the Christians.  In other places, too, Islamic influence is growing - Indonesia and Malaysia, central Europe, even western China.

The latest stories are coming out of Somalia, where fundamentalist Islamic rebels are taking over the country piece by piece.  Wherever they go, they impose a drastic, almost unimaginable version of Sharia law.  They’ve made recent news by stoning a teenager to death for the crime of “adultery” after she was forcibly raped, and for murdering aid workers.

As the world kind of looks on at this growing persecution of Christians, let us pray.

I have to wonder what it would be like to return home after leaving because of persecution - something that Christians in Mosul are experiencing right now.  What would it be like to return to the neighborhood and city that had been so hostile, so full of fear and violence just weeks previously?  What would it be like to live in a place where your life was threatened simply because of your faith?

I can only imagine the answers to these questions, but as I ponder them, I am reminded that as Christians, their real home is not in Mosul.  In fact, it’s not on earth at all.  During their pilgrimage here, they have been put in tough circumstances, but their hope is not in stability and peace here, but in heavenly eternal peace.  How hard it must be to focus on this future hope in the presence of present suffering and fear!

As we pray for them, let’s pray that they would keep their focus on eternal hope.

The International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church is only days away - are  you ready?

While praying for the persecuted church should not be a one-day-a-year event, the IDOP is a special day to join with thousands of believers worldwide to jointly intercede for the needs of our suffering brothers and sisters.  Don’t miss this special opportunity on November 9!

The theme for this year is “Refined in Fire,” a very accurate description of what Christians in so many countries are experiencing.  Though their fires can be very diverse, their refining takes them to one place - closer to the character of Jesus.  Let us pray for their resolve, their commitment, and their faithfulness through the fires.

The IDOP website has a number of resources available for download that you can use to get you started.  If you’re looking for country-specific information, and information on how you can pray for Remember’s work, visit our resources page, too.  Feel free to download and distribute all of the information that is there.  Make sure your church family knows about the IDOP!

China: Persecution Intensifies After Olympics

Eritrea: Officials Imprison 20 Members of Underground Church

India: Destroyed Church Building Leads to Unity

Even in the midst of persecution, believers are praising God for His faithfulness!

Iraq: What’s Behind the Attacks on Christians in Mosul?

Newsweek tackles a tricky, but very important question.

North Korea: Leader’s Reported Health Woes Unlikely to Affect Anti-Christian Policies

Kim Jong-Il has long been one of the world’s worst persecutors, but his illnesses are not stopping North Korea’s program of violence and intimidation against the Body of Christ.

Pakistan: Pastor Suffers Police Attacks, Death Threats

Somalia: Christian Aid Worker Beheaded for Converting from Islam

Somalia is not known for its ongoing persecution, but violence from further north in Africa continues to spread.

But that perspective is not the only one available.  Some Hindu leaders in India, for instance, are holding up the Orissa violence as a model of what a state should be.  “We will make our district like Orissa,” they have pledged.  That horrifying violence, the destruction and slaughter, is their idea of what constitutes good.

I should not be surprised, I suppose, that this perspective is alive and well - without it, there would be no persecution! - but seeing it displayed in such brazen prominence is a wake up call.  Evil is alive and well, and there are those that are so deceived as to think that it is their calling to persecute our brothers and sisters in Christ.

But truth does not depend on our perspectives, and as we minister and pray we can do so in the confidence that we are serving the God of that truth.  Let us pray with that confidence against the evil that pervades this world of ours.

The latest hotspot is the Iraqi city of Mosul (the modern-day location of ancient Ninevah).  If you have followed Remember’s work, you know that persecution in Iraq has been growing since in recent years (Background Briefing).  The toppling of the main dictator, Saddam Hussein, increased the power to local warlord dictators, many of whom hate Christianity.  The persecution is widespread throughout the country, causing the vast majority of Iraq’s Christians to flee the country for their own safety.  These are the Christians that we ministered to on our recent trip to Jordan.

But those Christians that remain are under constant threat of violence.  That violence recently broke out in Mosul in a terrifying way.  ANS is reporting that over 3,000 Christians have been forced to flee their homes in the last week alone.

Armed Islamic terrorists are walking in the streets and asking pedestrians for his or her identification card. The religion of the owner is written on every ID card, either Muslim or Christian. When “Christian” is read by the terrorists, the owner of the card is sometimes murdered on the spot with a bullet through the head.

These Christians need our prayers.

For More Information–

Islamic Fundamentalists: “Expel the Christians from Mosul”

Christians Targets in Iraq

Praise the Lord, Remember’s second annual fundraising was a success!  A lot of people put a lot of work into every little detail of the evening, but the Lord was glorified, and the persecuted church was blessed both by the donations and the increased awareness and prayer support generated that evening.

How true it is that our suffering brothers and sisters in Christ are not forsaken - they have the passion and prayer of these people, and so many more, working on their behalf.

Most of the presentation was in video form, so stay tuned for links to those videos!

Remember Board Chairman Curtis Bostic shared about his trip to China.

Remember Board member Tim Bunn shared his eyewitness account of persecution’s aftermath in Orissa, India.

Remember Board member Rick Jackson shared Remember’s ongoing vision and plan to minister in Sudan.

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