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.

Pray for Turkmenistan

Pray for believers in Turkmenistan.

Yesterday's 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 Turkmenistan.

• Religious freedom is under the strict control of the authorities in Turkmenistan.
• Only a small number of churches are registered, while many others have been unsuccessfully trying to get registration for years. None of the ethnic Turkmen churches was registered. The unregistered churches meet secretly in homes, often changing meeting places.
• Police regularly raid the houses of believers, confiscating and destroying Christian literature.
• Pastor Ilmurad Nurliev was sentenced to four years in prison and forced medical treatment under a false accusation of drug addiction in October 2010 and is now in a labour camp that has extremely tough conditions. He has not been allowed to have a Bible since his arrest in August.  He has diabetes and has been denied necessary medication. He was excluded from the recent prisoner amnesty.

 Tomorrow, you’ll learn about and receive opportunities to pray for Azerbaijan.

Ethiopian Christian accused of defacing Qur’an

Ethiopia continues to be torn
by social, political and
economic crises.

Compass Direct News is reporting that Ethiopian Christian Tamirat Woldegorgis, father of two and member of the Full Gospel Church, was sentenced to three years in prison for allegedly desecrating a Qur’an.

Tamirat was arrested in early August after a Muslim co-worker in the clothes-making business the two operated discovered Tamirat had inscribed “Jesus is Lord” on some cloth, area Christians said. His business partner later accused him of writing “Jesus is Lord” in a copy of the Qur’an, although no evidence of that ever surfaced.

Tamirat was sentenced on November 18 and was subsequently transferred to Jijiga prison, a source said. Jijiga is the capital of Ethiopia’s Somali Region Zone Five, which is governed by Islamic principles. Tamirat’s transfer there puts his life in great danger, a church leader said.

Pray Tamirat will be blessed with the Lord’s comforting strength and presence. Pray for his release from prison and, in the meantime, pray for his protection. Pray the Lord will ease the grip of Islamic rule and influence over parts of Ethiopia.

Read the full story here.

For more information on the challenges facing Christians in Ethiopia, visit www.persecution.net/ethiopia.htm.

Operation World is now available

VOM is now offering the newest release of Operation World: The Definitive Prayer Guide to Every Nation.

Written for Bible-believing Christians who want to obey the last great command of Jesus Christ by evangelising the world and completing the Great Commission, the seventh edition shares well-researched statistics on the state of the church around the globe. It also includes charts and maps, showing global religious and demographic trends and major currents in economics, politics and society, as well as the prayer needs of each nation.

It is a valuable resource and prayer tool for every home and church.

You can order yours today by visiting VOM’s Online Catalogue.

Operation World by Jason Mandryk, paperback, 978 pages. Available while supplies last.

Reach out to North Korean believers this Christmas

Our North Korean brothers and sisters are blessed with
daily essentials through the Christmas Blessing Fund.

Our brothers and sisters in North Korea continue to covet our prayers. Under the rule of Kim Jong Il, the needs of North Koreans are sacrificed in order to bolster the power and control of his regime. North Koreans are currently suffering severely because of skyrocketing inflation and the shortage of daily necessities. Many are starving to death.

Among the hardest hit are followers of Christ, who are treated with particular cruelty for refusing to renounce Christ—an action that recognizes an authority greater than the "Dear Leader."

For a second year, VOM's Christmas Blessing Fund is supplying believers in North Korea with gift packages that contain food, toiletries, medication, clothing and Christian literature. This ongoing project, with distributions made throughout the year, helps to fulfill persecuted believers' basic needs.

You can get involved in this exciting project today as we grasp the hands of our brothers and sisters in North Korea and share the blessing of Christmas with them!

To make a donation, visit us online at http://www.persecution.net/donation.htm. You can also send financial gifts by mail or call us at 1-905-670-9721.

The Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 608
Streetsville, ON  L5M 2C1
Canada

Continue to pray for boldness and strength for Christians living in North Korea. Pray for God's provision for those suffering in prison camps and living in deplorable conditions. Pray that North Korean Christians will have opportunities to share the love of Christ, even with those who oppress them. Pray that God's unrestrained mercy will spill over North Korea, frustrating the wicked (Psalm 146:9b) and delivering the oppressed (Psalm 40:11-13).

Prayer meetings banned during Asian Games

Guangzhou is located in southern China.

The 16th Asian Games has reached its halfway point in Guangzhou, China. ChinaAid reports that leading up to the games, which started on November 12, authorities in the southern Chinese city banned unofficial Protestant "house churches" from holding meetings.

Local pastors and their congregations were warned not to meet during the games, which end November 27, according to rights lawyer and Protestant house church member Tang Jingling. Tang said that the authorities sought out pastors and ordered them to stop holding meetings. Some of the groups responded by splitting up into much smaller groups and meeting at ever-changing locations.

The ban—that extends to all house churches in the entire Pearl River Delta region—is likely to remain in effect until January.

ChinaAid says that China’s unregistered churches are under constant fire from the government for operating outside officially sanctioned religious activities.

An atheist country, China has an army of officials whose job is to watch over faith-based activities, says ChinaAid. Those activities have spread rapidly in the wake of massive social change and economic uncertainty since economic reforms began 30 years ago. Party officials are put in charge of Catholics, Buddhists, Taoists, Muslims and Protestants. Judaism isn't recognized, and worship in unapproved temples, churches or mosques is against the law.

You can read the story in its entirety here.