Secret Church

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New World Watch List Posted: 24 Jan 2013 12:12 PM PST Open Doors released their updated World Watch List earlier this month.  The list ranks the countries in which Christians are most persecuted for their faith.  As they note in a press release earlier this month, persecution is on the rise in a lot of African countries.  They point to an increase in the influence and thinking of Muslim extremist groups such as Boko Haram in Nigeria. One of the African countries that is feeling the effects of this extremism is Eritrea.  Located in the Horn of Africa right next to Ethiopia and Somalia (numbers 15 and 5 on the list, respectively), Eritrea has seen a slight increase in persecution, moving from number 11 to number 10 in 2013.  Muslim extremists are adding pressure, but they are also experiencing persecution from the Orthodox Church there, the only government-accepted religious entity in Eritrea.  Orthodox Church members will often report evangelicals to the government, who will in turn arrest them and throw them into prisons or large shipping containers within military camps.  Just recently, and in the wake of a failed coup, Eritrean officials arrested ten underground church leaders.  This is part of a systematic effort in which the goal is eradication of the underground evangelical church “by targeting its key leaders around the country." There is one country on the list that has not moved for over a decade now  This is the eleventh consecutive year that North Korea has been number 1 on the World Watch List, and the persecution of Christians here, unlike in the African countries and most of the other ones across the Middle East, does not have anything to do with Muslim extremism.  This communist state is totally against any type of organized religion, especially Christianity.  Two North Korean Christians were recently confirmed dead after receiving Bible training in China and then returning to North Korea to share the gospel with their families and friends.  One was shot by a border guard while trying to re-enter the closed country, and the other was sent to one of North Korea’s notorious labor camps where he died after being tortured, over-worked, and under-fed.  The saddest part of this story is that “Christians die for their faith almost every day in North Korea.” Let these stories encourage us in our faith and challenge us to be bold in places where we have a lot more freedom to do so.  But also, let these stories be a pressing reminder to pray for our brothers and sisters in other parts of the world who are experiencing intense persecution.  According to Open Doors, prayer is their number one request.  They need our help in asking the Father for strength to follow Christ in these places where it is so difficult to do so. Information for this post was gathered from Open Doors and their World Watch List.

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