Pray for Azerbaijan

Pray for believers in Azerbaijan.

A January 19 Religious Liberty Prayer Bulletin reported there have been many answers to prayer for the Church in Central Asia:

• Unity among Protestant churches is growing.
• There are many testimonies of a growing interest in the Good News among Muslims.
• Many churches have a missionary vision for reaching out to the neighbouring Muslim countries.

However, much prayer is still needed.

Today, please consider praying for Azerbaijan.

• Religious freedom has been steadily deteriorating in Azerbaijan over the last few years.
• Since changes to the Religious Law were adopted in May 2009, the churches have faced problems with re-registration. Many have been denied registration and unregistered religious activities are illegal.
• Believers have been interrogated and fined when their gatherings have been raided by police.
• In October 2010, police raided the house where 80 members of an unregistered Baptist church were celebrating Harvest Festival. Four of them were arrested and sentenced to five days in prison.
• In December 2010, an Adventist church was raided by police and its members were interrogated and fined heavily.
• New amendments to the Code of Administrative Offences are expected to be discussed in the parliament and if approved would impose even heavier fines for unregistered religious activities.

 Stay tuned for prayer requests for other countries in Central Asia.