Pray for Pastor Quang

Print these prayer requests and keep them with you throughout the week. Jun. 26, 2014 | Vietnam Pray for Pastor Quang Several hundred people, including police and local officials, attacked a Bible School in southern Vietnam on June 9, injuring more than 20 pastors and students. The mob, which broke through a gate to enter the school, beat the believers, ransacked the building and tore off several doors before leaving nearly two hours later. The school’s founder, Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, suffered injuries to his head and chest during the attack. Pastor Quang, an outspoken Christian leader in the area, has been arrested in the past and had his home demolished by authorities. He is determined to continue the work of the college despite the attack and intimidation. Post Your Prayer Jun. 26, 2014 | Syria Pray for Christians Suffering Amid Civil War Christians in Syria continue to suffer as a result of the ongoing civil war there. On June 12, a Christian worker living in Aleppo, Syria, lost her home when it was destroyed by a mortar shell, and a VOM contact reported that five families in his church also have lost their homes recently as a result of bombings in the city. In addition, Aleppo has been without running water for more than two weeks. Families often must wait in line for up to three hours to get a couple gallons of water. Post Your Prayer Jun. 26, 2014 | Sri Lanka Pray for Pastor and Christians Beaten during Worship Meeting A pastor and three other believers were severely beaten on May 12 when more than 40 people in their Sri Lankan village broke through a security fence and began attacking them with poles. The day before the attack, the villagers had warned the Christians to stop their worship meetings. After knocking the pastor unconscious with a blow to the head, the attackers dispersed, thinking they had killed him. Police questioned the Christians for more than seven hours, and the magistrate's office finally ordered the arrest of the attackers. The pastor was hospitalized for four days, and the three injured believers were hospitalized for two days. Post Your Prayer iCommitToPray  •  © 2014 The Voice of the Martyrs  •  Unsubscribe

Secret Church

---

The High Cost of Following Christ in a Muslim Family Posted: 24 Jun 2014 10:01 PM PDT “Brother will deliver brother over to death, and the father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death, and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next, for truly, I say to you, you will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.” Matt 10:21-23 Josef’s home is in Pakistan, but he is no longer welcome there. In fact, that’s quite an understatement. His brother–Ibrahim–is currently pursuing him, murder in his heart. But “murder” is not how Ibrahim would probably view it. As far as he is concerned, Josef has rejected his family’s faith, and as a worshipper of Allah, his angry determination to kill him is right. For now, Ibrahim knows only the general whereabouts of his brother: Kabul, Afghanistan. So he is there, too … insistent upon Josef’s death in a country that’s more than sympathetic with Ibrahim’s stop-at-nothing pursuit of his apostate brother. Meanwhile, Josef is holed up in a basement somewhere in the capitol city. He is exiled from his homeland, rejected by his family, and apart from his wife and son … but he’s never been more sure of himself. Read his story in this New York Times article: KABUL, Afghanistan — In a dank basement on the outskirts of Kabul, Josef read his worn blue Bible by the light of a propane lantern, as he had done for weeks since he fled from his family in Pakistan. His few worldly possessions sat nearby in the 10-by-10-foot room of stone and crumbling brown earth. He keeps a wooden cross with a passage from the Sermon on the Mount written on it, a carton of Esse cigarettes, and a thin plastic folder containing records of his conversion to Christianity. The documents are the reason he is hiding for his life. On paper, Afghan law protects freedom of religion, but the reality here and in some other Muslim countries is that renouncing Islam is a capital offense. Josef's brother-in-law Ibrahim arrived in Kabul recently, leaving behind his family and business in Pakistan, to hunt down the apostate and kill him. Reached by telephone, Ibrahim, who uses only one name, offered a reporter for The New York Times $20,000 to tell him where Josef was hiding … READ MORE (HT: Albert Mohler)

You are subscribed to email updates from Secret Church Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Pray for Pastor Umar Mulinde

Print these prayer requests and keep them with you throughout the week. Jun. 20, 2014 | Uganda Pray for Pastor Umar Mulinde After spending more than two years in Israel receiving treatment for severe acid burns, Pastor Umar Mulinde was welcomed home to Uganda by his family and church on May 25. On Christmas Eve 2011, Pastor Umar was walking to his church when he was attacked by a group of Muslim men. One man poured acid on his face while others poured it down his back. The men shouted "Allahu Akbar!" (God is great!) as they ran from the scene. Pastor Umar lost his right eye in the attack and underwent extensive facial reconstruction at a hospital in Israel before returning home to Uganda. Pastor Umar said his recovery is "a turn of events for a wonderful testimony." Post Your Prayer Jun. 20, 2014 | Laos Pray for Sort, Believer Tied to Post A Christian man in Laos was arrested on May 29 and tied to a post after refusing to recant his faith. Sort, who has been a Christian for the past year, was approached by a police official and the village leader on May 15 and threatened with expulsion from the village if he would not give up his Christian faith. "I've embraced the Christian faith over a year, and I have not broken any law!" he told authorities. They then took the equivalent of $500 from Sort and tied him to a post as punishment. Post Your Prayer Jun. 20, 2014 | Kazakhstan Pray for Viktor Kandyba, Imprisoned for Faith Viktor Kandyba, leader of a Baptist congregation in Kazakhstan, was sentenced to 10 days in prison for refusing to pay a fine his church received last year for holding unregistered prayer meetings. The prayer meetings were considered illegal because all religious activity in Kazakhstan must be registered. Post Your Prayer iCommitToPray  •  © 2014 The Voice of the Martyrs  •  Unsubscribe

Secret Church

---

Believers in Iraq Posted: 17 Jun 2014 02:08 PM PDT If you’ve been keeping up with the news over the last few weeks, you know that the situation in Iraq is quickly worsening at the hands of ISIS (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). The al-Qaeda offshoot is one of the most extreme Islamist organizations in the world, and they are rapidly overtaking cities throughout the country; the most recent to fall under their control–Baqouba–is only 40 miles from the capitol city, Baghdad. Currently, ISIS also occupies Iraq’s second largest city, Mosul. That siege induced 500,000 of Mosul’s 1.8 million residents to flee. Among those who fled were Iraqi troops and up to 1,000 Christians (almost emptying Mosul of believers). Christians in Iraq have become increasingly sparse over the last 25 years, decreasing from around 1.2 million to 300,000. ISIS brings a whole new threat to the already hostile environment of Christians living in Iraq. It is feared that ISIS will impose strict anti-Christian laws and restrictions on believers who fall under their authority … a fear that increases with each ISIS gain. Christianity Today’s “Thousands Flee as Terrorists Take Over Iraq’s Christian Heartland” was the main source for this story. (HT: Trevin Wax)

You are subscribed to email updates from Secret Church Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Secret Church

---

One Way to Respond to Persecutors with Unwavering Faithfulness to God Posted: 11 Jun 2014 10:01 PM PDT Then Nebuchadnezzar in furious rage commanded that Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego be brought. So they brought these men before the king. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the golden image that I have set up? Now if you are ready when you hear the sound of the horn, pipe, lyre, trigon, harp, bagpipe, and every kind of music, to fall down and worship the image that I have made, well and good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the god who will deliver you out of my hands?" Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, "O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up." Daniel 3:13-18

You are subscribed to email updates from Secret Church Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Pray for Qhua Ha, a Hmong believer

Print these prayer requests and keep them with you throughout the week. Jun. 12, 2014 | Vietnam Pray for Qhua Ha, a Hmong believer On April 14, a family of Hmong believers in Vietnam were beaten and forced from their home. For months, local authorities and villagers had pressured Qhua Ha, 37, his wife and their four children to renounce their faith, but they refused. After beating the couple and their 9-year-old son, authorities forced the family to leave, seizing their home and property, including 10 bags of rice and 125 chickens. Qhua Ha and his wife became Christians in February 2013 and were the only Christians in the village. VOM contacts ask for prayer for Qhua, his wife and their four children, ages 9, 6, 4 and 1. Post Your Prayer Jun. 12, 2014 | China Pray for Prisoner Alimujiang Yimiti and family The wife of Uyghur Christian Alimujiang Yimiti reports that her husband, who is being held in a prison in China, has lost a lot of weight since her last visit to the prison and that he looks pale. However, she said he is still doing well spiritually. She asks that we continue to pray for Alimujiang's strength to overcome the difficulties he faces in prison, such as unkind guards. Gulimar and her two children are allowed to visit Alimujiang for only 15 minutes every three months. The couple's oldest son, who is 15, is sad and discouraged about his father's continued imprisonment, and their 8-year-old son misses his dad and remains anxious for his return. Alimujiang was arrested in 2008 and sentenced to 15 years for "illegally providing state secrets to foreign nationals." Post Your Prayer Jun. 12, 2014 | Nigeria Pray for Christians Killed in Two Attacks Dozens of Christians were killed and many others injured in two attacks by Boko Haram in Borno state, Nigeria on June 1 and June 3. On June 1, at least 27 believers were killed and another 50 severely injured when hundreds of militants invaded the Christian community of Attagara during church services. Two days later, Boko Haram militants disguised as army officials entered the same village and lured Christians to a supposed meeting about security problems. All 45 Christians that came to the meeting were shot to death. Militants also attacked the north of the village and some surrounding Christian communities, killing dozens of women and children who tried to flee into the hills. Post Your Prayer iCommitToPray  •  © 2014 The Voice of the Martyrs  •  Unsubscribe

Secret Church

---

[VIDEO] Growth With Prayer – China’s Revival Posted: 09 Jun 2014 10:01 PM PDT Open Doors Acts 4:23-31 When they were released, they went to their friends and reported what the chief priests and the elders had said to them. And when they heard it, they lifted their voices together to God and said, "Sovereign Lord, who made the heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who through the mouth of our father David, your servant, said by the Holy Spirit, "'Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers were gathered together, against the Lord and against his Anointed'— for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus." And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness. (Acts 4:23-31)   For a good sermon on the role of prayer in missions, check out Relenting Wrath: The Role of Desperate Prayer in the Mystery of Divine Providence (David Platt, T4G).

You are subscribed to email updates from Secret Church Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Secret Church

---

Open Doors Releases Ten Most Violent Countries Toward Christians Posted: 05 Jun 2014 10:01 PM PDT It almost seems inappropriate to label it a “top” ten list. As a believer, you’d never want to see your country come in at number one. Over a 17-month period, the World Watch List team set out to specifically research which ten countries were most violent toward Christians. Different than the World Watch List–which takes into account political restrictions and social pressures–the new list is  based only on the number of persecution acts. Such incidents include physical abuse, destruction of property, and killings. North Korea, because it was impossible to collect data from the country, is not included. Four continents are represented in their final rankings. Nigeria Syria Egypt Central African Republic Mexico Pakistan Colombia India Kenya Iraq For a brief description about the violence in each of these countries, read the full World Watch Top 10 Violence List. If you want to see Open Doors’ analysis of the list, click HERE.

You are subscribed to email updates from Secret Church Blog To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.	Email delivery powered by Google
Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610

Pray for Pastor and Reopened Church

Print these prayer requests and keep them with you throughout the week. Jun. 05, 2014 | Indonesia Pray for Pastor and Reopened Church Pastor David has spent the last 10 years ministering to believers in Central Java, but a local mosque recently sent him a letter indicating that his church building was illegal and could no longer hold services. After being summoned to the village office, Pastor David informed the head of the village that the church had been in existence prior to a decree that requires houses of worship to attain permission from locals in the community. In addition, the pastor told authorities that locals were not opposed to the church and that even the country's former president had approved it. As a result, authorities decided that the church could continue to hold services. Post Your Prayer Jun. 05, 2014 | Azerbaijan Pray for Believers as Old Testament Banned On May 5, a news agency in Baku, Azerbaijan, published a list of banned religious books, including the Old Testament. The list, said to be produced by state police and expert analysts, includes 28 titles claimed to be "some of the most radical and dangerous" religious books. Many believers are concerned that police in some areas of Azerbaijan may use the list of banned books as a reason to conduct raids and confiscate Bibles and other Christian literature. Religious literature is tightly controlled in Azerbaijan, and those caught with "illegal" materials often face criminal charges. "We need to pray to God for wisdom as to how to respond to this ban on the Holy Scriptures in Azerbaijan," one believer said. Post Your Prayer Jun. 05, 2014 | South Asia Pray for Bible Distribution to Bhutanese Refugees VOM workers recently distributed 6,000 Bibles to Bhutanese refugees in South Asia and left another 3,000 Bibles for pastors and church leaders to distribute as needed. When the refugees learned that they would receive their own Bibles, some of them said, "We never thought that there are people who love us." Post Your Prayer iCommitToPray  •  © 2014 The Voice of the Martyrs  •  Unsubscribe