Beijing Book Store Owner, Shi Weihan

Christian bookstore owner and house church leader, Mr. Shi Weihan, was transferred to the Beijing Haidian District Detention Center. Shi’s case has been transferred from the Public Security Bureau to the Beijing Procurator.

According to personal acquaintances who have visited Mr. Shi, his health has degenerated to the point that he is hardly recognizable to his closest friends.

Shi was first detained on November 28, 2007 then acquitted of charges on January 4, 2008. On March 19, of this year he was detained for the second time and has been incarcerated until now.

China Aid Association President Bob Fu, strongly condemned the Beijing authorities for their cruel and unjust treatment of Shi Weihan. Mr. Fu urged Beijing authorities to release Mr. Shi as soon as possible to avoid adversity amongst the international community.

To express your concern over the unjust treatment of Shi Weihan, contact:

Tang Long, City of Beijing Deputy Secretary General of the Municipal People’s Government.
Phone: 011-86-10-62362008

Liu Jianchao, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Director of Information Department.
Phone: 011-86-10- 65963342

Network

Laos: Ordered to renounce

The chief of Boukham village in Savannakhet province, Laos today ordered the families of three detained Christians in Savannakhet province to sign documents renouncing their faith. Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom reported that the family members refused. A crackdown in other parts of Laos continued, with new incidents reported this week in Attapue and Borikhamxay provinces.

On Monday (August 25), the chief of Donphai village in Attapue province summoned Christians and fined them for holding a church service during local animistic ceremonies. In Borikhamxay province, officials continued to pressure 22 Christian families comprising 150 people in Toongpankham village who have refused to give up their faith. Village officials had torn down their church building in January, then in mid-August harassed church members for not meeting in a proper worship facility.

Network

Saudi Arabia:
Honor Killing

In Saudi Arabia, a father killed his teen daughter when he found she’d converted to Christianity. Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs USA says so-called “honor killings” are a two-sided coin: done first because of shame, and second because of the mindset that conversion takes time.

“If you’re able to kill your family member before that conversion process is complete, you’re actually doing them a favor because they’re still going to die a Muslim. They’re still going to have some chance of going to Muslim paradise after death.”

Blog Web sites the girl visited in secret have created mourning pages or temporarily shut down in protest. It’s evidence that people are looking for answers outside the Koran.

“The internet becomes a source of information and, ultimately, a source of ministry that says there is something else out there. There’s Jesus Christ and the hope, the assurance of eternity with Him. And that speaks very loudly to the Muslim heart.”

Pray that the slain girl’s family comes to Christ through this.

Network

Swaziland: Wives of the King

Swazi anger at royal wives’ trip

Hundreds of Swazi women have marched through the streets of the capital to protest about a shopping trip taken by nine of the king’s 13 wives. They chartered a plane last week to go to Europe and the Middle East.

Correspondent Thulani Mthethwa says the protesters handed in a petition to the finance ministry saying the money could have been better spent.
“We can’t afford a shopping trip when a quarter of the nation lives on food aid,” they chanted.

Swaziland, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, is one of the poorest countries in the world and more than 40% of the population is believed to be infected with HIV.

Protest slogan
The march was organised by Positive Living, a non-governmental organisation for women with Aids.
Our correspondent says there was a cross-section of women on the march from professionals to rural representatives.
“We need to keep that money for ARVs [anti-retrovirals],” was another slogan shouted by the women.

King Mswati III, 40, has been criticised in the past for requesting public money to pay for new palaces, a personal jet and luxury cars.
News of his wives’ trip broke in the local press a day after they left, our reporter says.
Earlier this week, senior princes warned the women not to march, saying it defied Swazi tradition.

Network

Beijing House Churches Forced
to Sign Document Pledging Not to Meet During the Olympic Games

CAA has discovered that a number of Chinese House Church Pastors were forced to sign a written agreement that they would not participate in religious services while the Olympic Games are taking place in China. The document, drafted by Chinese Govnerment Officials, specifies that the House Churches in China

“…refrain from organizing and joining illegal gatherings and refrain from receiving donations, sermons and preaching from overseas religious organizations and groups that have a purpose.”

The document also prohibits the churches from gathering in their communities for more than 3 months while the Olympics are taking place. Should church members violate these rules they will be subject to the disciplinary actions of the Chinese Government.

The discovery of this document provides further evidence of the PRC’s hypocrisy towards creating a “harmonious society” marked by religious freedom and rule of law. The fact the document was issued while the World’s focus is on China, is a blatant challenge to the International community and an apathetic stance toward seeking to correct human rights violations even as world leaders are directly confronting the Government at the Beijing Olympics.

If China is seeking to put on the mantle of a world superpower, it must first acknowledge the unalienable rights of its own people. CAA calls on the international community and those concerned to voice their complaint to the relevant Chinese Government authorities.

Network

Maldives: Constitutional changes fall short

The Maldives’ newly-ratified constitution is getting both praise and criticism. According to World Evangelical Alliance, Article 2 reads that the law is “based on the principles of Islam.”
Article 3 says non-Muslims may not become citizens, and no true religious liberties have been outlined.
President Gayoom has been labeled a dictator in the past, but the new constitution categorizes the country as a democracy.

Pray that the new laws will not bring more oppression to Christians.

Network

China: Christians plead for relief

Christian activist and house church pastor Hua Huiqi wrote an open letter to U.S. President George Bush on Sunday (August 10), asking for prayer for his personal safety and for freedom of belief for all Chinese people.

Earlier that day, plainclothes policemen detained Hua to prevent him participating in a service at the government-approved Kuanjie Protestant church in Beijing, where Bush was scheduled to attend. Hua slipped away from police officers when they fell asleep.

In Hua’s letter, published by the China Aid Association, he described his detention, saying that seven or eight policemen had kicked and punched him before seizing him and his brother, Hua Huilin.
“They threatened me: ‘We simply won’t allow you to go to Kuanjie Church today. If you say you will go there again, we will break your legs.’”

Also in Beijing, Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan remains in custody at the Beijing Municipal Detention Center.
And in Shandong province, two staff members from a house church seminary in Weifang city await trial for running an “illegal business operation” after they attempted to purchase Bibles from Amity Press, China’s official Bible printing facility. Sources confirmed that principal Lu Zhaojun and teacher Jin Xiuxiang are under close surveillance.

Network

CHINA: House Church pastor detained

Chinese police detained house church leader Zhang Mingxuan, along with his wife Xie Fenlang and co-pastor Wu Jiang He, at a police station in Hebei after a BBC journalist attempted to interview him on Monday (August 4).

International affairs journalist John Simpson phoned Zhang to request an interview, as required in a handbook given to journalists reporting on the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Zhang agreed to the interview, but as Simpson traveled to meet him, police seized Zhang and his companions and moved them to a local police station.
Public Security Bureau officials had banished Zhang and his wife from Beijing for the duration of the Games, fearing they would try to meet with visiting foreign officials.

After forcing Zhang and Xie to leave their home, police on July 18 entered a guesthouse where they were staying and drove them to Yanjiao in neighboring Hebei province.
Zhang and Xie had moved to another, more remote town to await the completion of the Games.

Network

Italy: Book of Hope enter classrooms

In Italy, while boasting a Christian population, very few Italians have a true relationship with Christ. However, a church in Palermo is praying that will change as they distribute 2500 copies of the Book of Hope.
Since many in the church are teachers, they’ve introduced the book to the religion teachers. Now many have adopted the Book of Hope as the official religion hour book.
Pray that many kids will respond to its saving message.

Missionary and evangelist Bob Hoskins founded Book of Hope in 1987 when he was asked by El Salvador’s Minister of Education to provide God’s Word to all of the country’s 986,000 school children.
Book of Hope’s mission is to affect destiny by providing God’s eternal Word to all the children and youth of the world.
The Book of Hope is a chronological and harmonized version of the four Gospels telling the story of the life of Jesus. It’s the evangelistic tool we use in accomplishing our mission of reaching the youth of the world by giving Bibles for children.

Network

Saudi Arabia deports 15 Christians

15 foreign Christians are being deported from Saudi Arabia, just two weeks after King Abdullah called for reconciliation between Muslims, Christians, Jews and others.
Police arrested the 15 in April for holding a private prayer meeting and released them after 3 days. Jeff King with International Christian Concern says this is typical and a bit ironic.

“The king [Abdullah] is saying Christians and Muslims need to get along better. Then, look at what’s happening at home! This just shows and exposes the heart of Saudi beliefs. They can spend money and spin things, and they can do PR. But what matters is what happens at home.”
Islam is the only legal religion in Saudi. Despite that, the church is growing.
King says, “There is a tremendous hunger for Bibles in the persecuted church. You could see up to 30 people sharing one Bible. They tear off little pieces, and each person has like one book. One of our big drives is to get Bibles into the hands of these guys.”

Network

China: Authorities banish pastor from Beijing

As U.S. President George W. Bush attends Olympic events in Beijing this week and a church service in the capital next Sunday, Chinese authorities have banished house church pastor Zhang Mingxuan from the city for the duration of the Games.

Several other Christians remain in detention or face ongoing harassment. Plainclothes police officers forcibly removed Zhang and his wife Xie Fenglan from a guesthouse in Beijing on July 18 and took them to Yanjiao, Hebei province, to prevent them from meeting foreign officials visiting Beijing for the Games, according to the South China Morning Post.

The couple had moved from one guesthouse to another at least six times prior to the raid to escape police harassment. They have since moved from Yanjiao to another remote town in Hebei to await the completion of the Games.

Zhang told reporters that constant police crackdowns had reduced the number of house churches he has established over the past decade from more than 10 to just three.

Network

Iran: Jailed Christian in Critical condition

A diabetic Iranian Christian jailed for two months is in critical condition due to lack of medical treatment, even as new reports of arrests against Christians surfaced this week.

Mahmood Matin and Arash Bandari have become frail from more than two months in prison, but the condition of Bandari, who suffers from diabetes, is critical. After two months of solitary confinement at a secret police detention center known by its address, Sepah Street 100, located in the center of Shiraz, Matin and Bandari were placed in a cell together around July 15, sources told us.

In the past 10 days, Iran’s Christians have reported that another wave of arrests hit four cities. Christians attending house churches in Bandar Abbas on the southern coast, in Isfahan 334 kilometers (207 miles) south of Tehran, and in Sanandaj and Kermanshah on the Iraqi border were arrested. Sources told us that Christians in these cities were held anywhere from one day to a week by the government.

“It is not just an accident that all this is happening in different cities at the same time,” a source said. “They had worked on it before, and they planned to move against house churches.”

Network

Troubled Christian community in northern Colombia

On 15 June, Ázael Hernandez, a church leader from the community of El Murmullo, was taken by force by armed men who were waiting for him on the road as he travelled from El Murmullo to the town of Tierralta. The men took him to a place called Revoliatico Peak, where he was beaten and then disappeared. It is presumed that he was killed and his body was thrown into the Urra Hydro-Electric Reservoir. Azael is survived by his wife, Fanny, and their four children, Edil Hernandez age 16, Roder 14, Nelson 13, and Leonel 3. Fanny is also a member of the church leadership team.

Five days later, on 20 June, the community, the majority of whom are active members of the Gethsemane Church, which belongs to the Association of Evangelical Churches of the Caribbean, received information that eleven more people had been targeted for assassination by the same armed group. It is unclear what is behind the threats, but a number of armed groups are present in the area, including the re-mobilised paramilitaries. There are also reports that the new paramilitary groups have entered into agreements with the FARC, a left-wing guerrilla group, divvying up control over the local cocaine trade as well.

Despite promises from the local government to investigate the disappearance of Ázael and to provide protection for the community, no action was taken and 36 families (around 180 individuals) were forced to flee to the relative safety of the town of Tierralta. They are currently being offered support and refuge by a local church, but are traumatised and understandably fearful.

Some of these families have now suffered forced displacement at the hands of armed groups three times. Azael and the majority of the victims were first displaced ten to twelve years ago. Some had subsequently returned to their land only to be forced to leave again. Approximately two years ago, they had begun a process of returning to this area of the municipality, which was supposedly safe following massive paramilitary demobilisations.

The community, including Azael’s widow, are calling for national and international support.
Please lift them, and the churches which are currently supporting them, up in your prayers. Members of the churches who are accompanying the displaced communities are doing so at great risk to themselves.
Pray for the protection of all of those involved, for wisdom and discernment, and for comfort and healing for Azael’s family.

THAILAND: Officials block distribution of Bibles

Authorities in Pattaya have been restricting the Southern Cross Project evangelism teams’ efforts to distribute God’s Word to Chinese tourists at the pier and other public places.

A partner of the World Bible Translation Center, the Southern Cross Project aims to distribute one million Easy-to-Read Version Chinese Bibles per year to business people and Chinese Communist Party officials who are allowed to travel outside China. They also distribute evangelistic materials including tracts and the Jesus Film along with the Bibles.
Volunteers approach tour groups in popular tour locations and offer them the Bibles and the evangelistic literature. About 40-50 percent of the tour groups’ members usually accept the gifts.
Southern Cross was able to distribute 104,690 packets and Bibles in 2007. These packets were distributed even further inside China, probably impacting over one million lives with the Gospel!

Thailand’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, according to Campus Crusade for Christ. Only 0.7 percent of the Thai population is Christian.
Bibles are not easy to obtain in China, where Open Doors reports one Christian is currently in detention for distributing Bibles and Christian literature. About 4 to 5 percent of the Chinese population is Christian.

Pray that God will change the hearts of the Pattaya authorities and allow the distribution of Bibles and evangelistic literature to continue.

Pakistan: On trial for blasphemy


Greetings in the precious name of our saviour Lord Jesus Christ,

I have special prayer request for MARTHA BIBI. She has falsely been implicated in a blasphemy case: FIR # 33/07, dated 22.01.2007 – offence under section 295C, Pakistan Penal Code; Police station in Changa Manga

She is on bail. Her trial has started.
I am pleading for her,
Pray for MARTHA BIBI, her family, and me. As in the court proceedings many Muslim fundamentalists come to pressurise.


I have another prayer request for Mr ROBIN SARDAR who also is falsely implicated in blasphemy case: FIR # 149/08, dated 04-05-2008 – offence under section 295C, Pakistan Penal Code; Police station in Sadar, Hafizabad.

He is confined in central jail Gujranwala. I visited him in prison. First I filed his bail petition before the session Judge, Hafizabad, who dismissed the petition due to pressure of Muslim fundamentalist, who use to come to the court

Once they tried to attack me, but my Lord prepared the judge and the opposite council to interfere, and by their interference the attack was averted.

Now I have filed his bail petition in Lahore High Court.

Pray for ROBIN SARDAR, his family and me.

With Warm regards,
EZRA S.
Advocate, High Courts Pakistan

INDIA: HINDU NATIONALIST CONFIDENCE GROWS

In February 1998 India’s Hindu nationalist Barantya Janata Party (BJP) rose to power on a platform of hard-line Hindu nationalism. The BJP’s election slogan was ‘One People, One Nation, One Culture’ (i.e. Hindu culture). Systematic, violent persecution of Christians escalated nationwide under BJP rule. Anti-conversion laws were enacted; ‘re-conversion’ ceremonies (to Hinduism) were promoted; Indian history was ‘saffronised’ (rewritten); and in 2002, up to 2000 Muslims were massacred in Gujarat in a BJP-incited pogrom.

The BJP governed also through India’s economic boom years, so when they lost power in the April-May 2004 elections, it was a huge shock to the world’s political analysts who had not counted on the disaffection of the impoverished, persecuted, left-behind masses. There was a lot of prayer through the election period in which voting was conducted in four stages. With the BJP leading after the second stage, requests for urgent prayer rang out. By the time the voting was over, the BJP had lost power. Christians praised God for what they saw as a divine mercy in answer to the prayers of many.

A year of squabbling, blame shifting and policy revision followed in the BJP. Then the ‘sangh parivar’ – the umbrella body dedicated to the advancement of Hindutva (Hindu supremacy) – emerged, committed to restoring the BJP to power. By the beginning of 2006 the BJP was back, both with a vengeance and a strategy. For decades Hindu nationalists have been working at converting India’s animist tribal masses to Hinduism. They tell tribal Indians that their ancestors were actually Hindus and that their animist religion is in fact a corrupted form of Hinduism.

The sangh parivar adopted this strategy and added a motivating element: fear! They tell the tribals that India’s security and sovereignty are under threat from foreign forces and that Christian missionaries are agents of the CIA working to divide India with communal strife ahead of invasion and occupation. They say the only way to save India is for the tribals to join the Hindu ‘mainstream’, vote BJP and join a Hindu militia. The religious conversion of the tribals – who traditionally vote for the Congress Party – is far less important to the Hindu nationalists than their political conversion.

In this way Hindu nationalism has been revived amongst the masses and persecution of Christians has escalated all across the nation. The Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government of PM Dr Manmohan Singh has so far failed to address either the issue of intolerant Hindutva or its immediate consequence: violent religious persecution. This is extremely short-sighted because the long term consequence of this failure could well be the BJP’s return to power in the next elections due May 2009.

The BJP is currently demanding a confidence vote in the parliament because the ruling UPA may have lost its majority when leftists withdrew from the UPA over the government’s nuclear deal with the US. The UPA losing that vote would pave the way for an early election. After defeating Congress in the Kanartaka state polls in May, the BJP is confident they and Hindutva have returned.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR –

* PM Manmohan Singh and the United Progressive Alliance government: that God will give them great wisdom and strength to effectively counter the rise of intolerant Hindutva.

* the Holy Spirit of God to pierce the consciences of Indians and heighten their discernment so they will reject violence, intolerance and lies.

* God to protect his people, comfort the persecuted, empower witness and sanctify the Indian Church which is both very ancient (in India for 2000 years) and yet very young.