Archives For persecution

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you

October 23, 2011

“Are you prepared for your family to be angry with you? Will you stand by your faith when they reject you?” Jai was able to answer, “yes”.

Jai had lived in a monastery as a monk to seek for and satisfy his longing for spiritual truth and enlightenment. He came to Thailand desperate for a job, and fell in love with a young Shan woman who loved Jesus. After they married he told her he did not want to talk about anything religious, but he watched her life. He was later baptized.

A week after being baptized, Jai went back to his family. They were even angrier than he had anticipated. They yelled at his wife and chased her away, telling her to never come back. They took away his phone and locked him in a room for weeks. They threatened him and told him he had to renounce his faith or they would never forgive him.

Eventually Jai escaped and was reunited with his wife. He stands firm in his faith.

Shan-Tai prayer month 2011, day 23

Shan Christians face huge costs in becoming disciples of Christ. They are not coming from a culture that considers religious convictions to be a private matter in which each individual can do as they please. Families and communities feel immensely betrayed when a Shan turns to Christ.

Many Shan really do lose everything by following Jesus. Rejected by family and even ostracised from their village, they suddenly have little or no worldly supports.

Some pay an even bigger price, willingly facing the dangers of going back into war zones to help their fellow people. In this role they are enemies of the Burma Army and become targets of their animosity.

On September 14th 2010 the Burma Army shot in the back and killed a Shan Free Burma Rangers relief team member as he was giving humanitarian assistance to people in Shan State.

Sai Yod was the team camera man as well as one of the Good Life Club team members who focused on helping children. He was a kind and smiling man who loved to help others, endured hardship without complaint and loved children. He was a hard worker, tough, and never surrendered. FBR REPORT 29 September, 2010

Pray for

  • New Shan believers to stand firm as they face persecution and threats (Philippians 1:27-30).
  • Persecutors to see Christ’s light in the lives of Christians and be changed by it (Matthew 5:16).
  • Those who knowingly face danger in order to serve Jesus.

“I myself was convinced that I ought to do many things in opposing the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And I did so in Jerusalem. I not only locked up many of the saints in prison after receiving authority from the chief priests, but when they were put to death I cast my vote against them. And I punished them often in all the synagogues and tried to make them blaspheme, and in raging fury against them I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
“In this connection I journeyed to Damascus with the authority and commission of the chief priests. At midday, O king, I saw on the way a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, that shone around me and those who journeyed with me. And when we had all fallen to the ground, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’ And I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And the Lord said, ‘I am Jesus whom you are persecuting. But rise and stand upon your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose, to appoint you as a servant and witness to the things in which you have seen me and to those in which I will appear to you, delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles—to whom I am sending you to open their eyes, so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’” (Acts 26:9-18 ESV)

Other posts related to this topic:

External Resources:

Download the Shan Prayer Guide:

30 Days of Prayer for the Shan
Image of Sai Yod: Free Burma Rangers

In Shan prayer 2011
permalink

Keeping out of trouble

October 5, 2011

Shan-Tai prayer month 2011, day 5

A simple Shan church

The Burmese government has an official policy of equal rights for all religions. The Burmese Army strongly discourages any religion other than Buddhism.

This means that although Christian churches are allowed to exist, they have to ask permission to be able to do any alterations to their buildings, to construct new buildings and to evangelize. It is at the whim of the local authorities whether any of these activities are permitted.

For Shan Christians it is not only the authorities who frown upon their faith, their neighbours do also. Buddhist Shan folks have little knowledge of Christianity and are suspicious of it as a ‘new’ religion.

In Shan State where being different in any way could result in being targeted by the Burma Army, many Christians are afraid to speak about their faith. The safest thing to do is behave just as everyone else does.

Would we react any differently is such circumstances?

Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated, common men, they were astonished. And they recognized that they had been with Jesus.
(Acts 4:13 ESV)

Pray for

  • Divine strength and endurance for the believers as they experience persecution from threatening communities  (Acts 12:3-11).
  • God to grant boldness to believers to speak and act upon their faith with conviction (Acts 4:29-31).

Other posts related to this topic:

Download the Shan Prayer Guide:

30 Days of Prayer for the Shan
Image of Shan church: Surehope.net

In Shan prayer 2011
permalink

The little I can do

July 5, 2011

As thousands of ants can move huge amounts of leaves despite each individual’s small size, surely the Body of Christ each loving their neighbour can do God’s will on Earth as it is in heaven.

Continue Reading...
In Eucharisteo, Hard stuff , ,
permalink

15-year-old Christian girl still missing

February 24, 2011

Reporting by Simba Tian, Compass Direct News

NAIROBI, Kenya, February 22 – A Christian widow in north Sudan is agonizing over the kidnapping of her daughter eight months ago by suspected Islamic extremists in Khartoum.

“Since my daughter was kidnapped, I have been living in a state of fear and terror,” said Ikhlas Anglo, 35, a mother of two daughters.

She said her 15-year-old daughter, Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo, went missing while returning from the Ministry of Education in Khartoum on June 27, 2010. Hiba, a member of Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Khartoum, had gone to the education ministry office to obtain her transcripts for entry to secondary school.

Two days later, the family received threatening telephone calls and SMS messages from the kidnappers telling them to pay 1,500 Sudanese pounds (US$560) in order to secure her return.

“Don’t you want to have this slave back?” one of the kidnappers told Anglo from an unknown location by cell phone, she said.

Anglo and others said they believe the kidnappers are Muslim extremists who have targeted them because they are Christians, and that police are aiding the criminals. She said that when she went to a police station to open a case, police bluntly told her she must first leave Christianity for Islam.

“You must convert to Islam if you want your daughter back,” officer Fakhr El-Dean Mustafa of the Family and Child Protection Unit told Anglo, she said. Recently transferred to another station, Mustafa was not immediately available for comment.

A relative of the girl said police are fully involved in the crime, as officers had traced the phone number of the kidnappers but were reluctant to admit that to the girl’s family.

‘‘The police have a direct link with the kidnappers,’’ the relative said.

Adding to the anguish of the kidnapped girl’s family was Anglo’s dismissal from her job when she took time off to search for Hiba. Anglo said her supervisor at Asia Health Center, where she had worked for many years as a cleaner, had told her to report back to work after recovering her daughter, but after a month she was surprised to learn that she had been fired as of July 1, 2010.

“They dismissed me because I was looking for my daughter, although they have given me permission,” she said.

Christians in north Sudan are anticipating increased persecution due to a referendum that gave the right of self-determination to the people of south Sudan, the majority of whom are Christians.    On Jan. 9, south Sudan voted for secession in order to establish a zone free of sharia (Islamic law). Northern Christians fear further dangers after July 9, when south Sudan will officially become an independent nation.

President Omar al-Bashir, wanted by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity in Darfur, has stated that the rights of southern citizens remaining in the north after secession will be respected. But Christians’ fears grew after he said in December that an altered constitution would be based on sharia and that Islam would be the official religion.

Nearly four months ago, police allegedly helped a Muslim businessman to seize property belonging to the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church in Khartoum (See Police in Sudan Aid Muslim’s Effort to Take Over Church Plot, Oct. 25, 2010).

By Simba Tian, Compass Direct News

Image of Hiba Abdelfadil Anglo: Compass Direct News

In Hard stuff
permalink

Turn… and pray

January 3, 2011

What should I do when someone attacks my faith? Obviously striking back is not an option (Luke 6:29), and Jesus did warn that the world would not think highly of Christians (John 15:18-20), even to the point of being turned upon by one’s own family (Matthew 10:34-38). That’s all good in theory, but in real life being slapped in the face is painful and intentionally placing myself as the target for a second shot is not what I want to do at all. What I want to do is to either hit back or run away (or hit back and then run!).  What I actually ended up doing was nothing much because I was too angry to trust myself to say anything so I did end up walking away from the ‘conversation’.

Certainly there have been times when people have mocked my faith and I have stoically accepted the mockery without flinching. But in those cases the person mocking me was not close to me or in any way a significant character in my life, so frankly I was not particularly concerned what they might think about what I believe. I’m not so stoic, however, when a person whose opinion can deeply affect me tells me that the foundation upon which I have built my life is worthless. My mind is saying, “that’s not true, don’t take it to heart”. My heart, on the other hand, is feeling completely gutted that this person could think in this way. Against even my own better judgment I find myself wondering if perhaps they are right? Maybe I truly am a fool for believing? (1 Corinthians 15:19).

In time I cool off a little, I find a space in which to open the Bible and renew my mind. The initial (immature) reaction of never wanting to see that person again subsides and grace wriggles in through cracks in my angry sullenness. It still hurts knowing that those few words reveal a heart attitude fundamentally opposed to the core of who I am – how do you relate to someone you should respect and honour when they disdain all that you value? I don’t know. It will take grace in very large measures, something I don’t have within myself.

What I do know is that I should pay greater attention to what I read in the Bible: while it was easy to recall the verse about turning the other cheek, it is the six words immediately preceding  Luke 6:29 that I most need: “pray for those who abuse you.” My not knowing how to respond to the situation is fine, my not having grace sufficient to the task is also fine, all I need is to pray. God is wisdom and grace, He has all I need and all I need to have is the humility of a child to ask and receive His equipping for the response He demands of me.

“But I say to you who hear, Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. To one who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also, and from one who takes away your cloak do not withhold your tunic either.”
(Luke 6:27-29 ESV)

Other posts related to this topic:

In Simple faith , ,
permalink