MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

Hebrews 13:3, “Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.”

By Eugenia Ugrinovich, Israel Today Magazine – “Home to one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, the city of Beit Jala — located on a hill adjacent to Bethlehem — still boasts a large number of worshippers. This fact makes the town unique among Palestinian towns, which have generally seen their Christian populations decline.

‘People are leaving Palestine [sic] in droves. Jenin, Aboud, Nablus — these cities have lost much of their Christian population, some villages and towns have no more than two to three families,’ said Peter, a 25-year-old resident of Bethlehem who agreed to be interviewed for this article on condition that his real name not be used.

Statistics show that more than 60 percent of the Arab Christians born in Palestinian areas over the past several generations now live abroad. Totaling some half a million people worldwide, 360,000 of them currently reside in dispersed communities in Canada, Chile, the United States, Germany, Australia and other countries. 154,000 remain in Israel and the Palestinian-controlled territories, with about 35,000 living in the West Bank and less than 3,000 in the Gaza Strip.

The flight of Christian is a growing trend across the Middle East. In Iraq, for example, the ancient Assyrian Christian community dropped from 1.5 million people to just 250,000 since the Second Gulf War broke out in 2003. Christians are leaving Lebanon en mass, with 60 percent of their beleaguered community now living in foreign lands. The Coptic Church in Egypt has lost tens of thousands of parishioners following the dramatic events of the ‘Arab Spring.'” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Mass Exodus’: Christians in Iran, Syria Face Rising Persecution from Islamic Fundamentalism – “In an e-mail to The Jerusalem Post on Sunday, Giulio Meotti, an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and author of the book A New Shoah, wrote ‘After the ethnic cleansing of Jews in 1948 from the Arab countries, Islamic fundamentalism is now trying to push away the Christians from the region. They want to establish a pure Islamic environment and the mass exodus already began under our noses.’ Meanwhile, the Pakistan Christian Post wrote last week on its website, ‘The Christian community in Syria has been hit by a series of kidnappings and brutal murders’ …” Read more.

Flashback: ‘The Most Important International Story Not Being Told by the Mainstream Media’: Christian Persecution in the Middle East – “U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom chairman Leonard Leo declared that Arab Christians face increasing persecution. ‘Christianity in Iraq could be eradicated in our lifetime, partially as a result of the U.S. troop withdrawal,’ Leo wrote. After Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed, 100,000 Christians fled Egypt in what the Egyptian Union of Human Rights called a ‘mass exodus.’ In the Gaza Strip, which is controlled by the radical Islamic terror group Hamas, 3,000 Christians face persecution… Should the exodus of Christians from Bethlehem continue in the next two or three decades, there may be no clergy left to conduct religious services in Jesus’ birthplace.” Read more.

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News – “DAMASCUS, SYRIA (Worthy News)– Christians are being targeted by Muslim rebels according to the Vatican and other sources amongst besieged Syrian Christian communities.

According to reports by the Vatican’s Fides News Agency, the US-backed Syrian Army are sacking churches and issuing threats that all Christians will be cleansed from rebel-held territory.

‘The picture for us is utter desolation,’ said Bishop Philip Tournyol Clos, a greek-Catholic Melkite Archimandrite. ‘The church of Mar Elian is half destroyed and that of Our Lady of Peace is still occupied by the rebels. Christian homes are severely damaged due to the fighting and completely emptied of their inhabitants, who fled without taking anything.’

Asked whether it was the Free Syrian Army that was telling Christians to get out, Agnes Miriam, Mother Superior of the Monastery of St. James at Qara in the Diocese of Homs, said ‘yes … it was commander on the ground, Abdel Salam Harba, who decided that there was to be no more negotiations with Christians.’

She said Christians refused to back the rebels, so the rebels used them as human shields.” Source – Worthy News.

Flashback: ‘Lawlessness’: Christian Killed In Qusayr Syria, Others Treated As It Were ‘The Days Of The Ottoman Caliphate’ – “The Christian Maurice Bitar was killed in Qusayr, near the town of Homs where the Christian population – about a thousand people out of 10 thousand who lived there before the beginning of the violence – has been forced to flee after the ‘ultimatum launched by an armed faction in the opposition forces led by General Abdel Salam Harba… According to Fides sources, ‘the situation is unsustainable in the area and exposed to total lawlessness.’… The fate of Christians in Qusary, concludes the source, could soon touch the 10 thousand faithful who live in other villages in the area, such as Dmeineh, Rableh and Hamra.” Read more.

Flashback: Syria: Death Stalks Syrian Christian Ministry, But ‘I Will Not Stop Until I Am With Jesus’ – “An indigenous missionary from nearby Lebanon crossed the border to baptize a believer last week. Instead, he had to bury the believer — shot in the head as a martyr for his recently-found faith in Jesus Christ… ‘This has been one of the longest weeks of my life,’ the missionary told Christian Aid. ‘To visit Syria, I had to sneak in through the mountains and not go by normal roads. ‘I went there to bury a friend who died last week. I was supposed to be baptizing him, but I ended up doing his funeral.’” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Deliberate and Growing’: Christian Persecution From ‘Arab Spring’ Insurgents in Syria Becoming a Steadily Growing Reality, ‘It Will Never Be the Same Anymore’ – “Refugees who have fled to Jordan from Syria are telling mission leaders supported by Christian Aid Mission about deliberate, new persecution from the ‘Arab Spring’ insurgents who are seeking to overthrow the brutal Assad regime in Damascus. Nearly 100,000 Christians so far have fled from Homs and other cities being targeted by government forces, but it is no longer just to escape the crossfire. Now, more reports are revealing that a new wave of persecution is deliberate and growing… ‘It is over; we can’t get back what we lost,’ said one discouraged Christian refugee here in Jordan. ‘It will never be the same anymore for me or my family. We’ve lost hope.’” Read more.

By Monia Ghanmi, Magharebia – “A recent video from a self-avowed al-Qaeda member called for holy war against the Tunisian government, raising fears among citizens that extremist violence could escalate.

The June 11th message from 30-year-old Salim Abou Ahmed Ayoub, purportedly the second in command of al-Qaeda in Tunisia, called on citizens to wage a holy war against the government in order to establish an Islamic state and wipe out unbelievers. The online video also directly attacked President Moncef Marzouki, calling for him to be overthrown.

The tape came just a day after al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri issued his own message threatening Tunisia, and after a discovery by Iraqi intelligence services of invitations to al-Qaeda leaders to go to Tunisia and expand their military operations, in order to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Together with a recent wave of salafist violence, the news is worrying many Tunisians who fear the country could become a target for terrorist attacks.

Salim Abdouli is concerned that al-Qaeda supporters in Tunisia will try to impose their agenda on the state and society through violence.

‘Terrorism by hard-line salafist groups in Tunisia will become a reality very soon,’ he commented. ‘We should not underestimate or ignore it, instead dealing with and responding to it before it’s too late.'” Read more.

Flashback: Tunisia: Muslims Behead Man For Refusing To Renounce His Faith In Jesus, ‘There Is No God But Allah And Muhammad Is His Messenger’ – “A young man appears held down by masked men. His head is pulled back, with a knife to his throat. He does not struggle and appears resigned to his fate. Speaking in Arabic, the background speaker, or ‘narrator,’ chants a number of Muslim prayers and supplications, mostly condemning Christianity, which, because of the Trinity, is referred to as a polytheistic faith: ‘Let Allah be avenged on the polytheist apostate’; ‘Allah empower your religion, make it victorious against the polytheists’; ‘Allah, defeat the infidels at the hands of the Muslims,’ and ‘There is no god but Allah and Muhammad is his messenger.’” Read more.

Flashback: Tunisia: Radical Islamists Hold Anti-Semitic March In Central Tunisia, ‘Jews, Jews, The Army Of Mohammed Is Back’ – “Thousands of Salafist Muslims marched on Kairouan in Central Tunisia, as part of the extremist Islamic movement’s annual assembly. The exclusively male attendees, many of whom were dressed in Afghan military uniform or waving Salafist black flags, marched through the city and raised a banner over the minaret of its mosque, the oldest in Africa… Organisers of the Salafist assembly had instructed marchers to remain ‘calm’ and not to talk to reporters. Many participants however defied their request not to chant slogans, reciting ‘We are all the children of Osama (bin Laden)’ and ‘Jews, Jews, the army of Mohammed is back’.” Read more.

John 16:2b, “… the time is coming when those who kill you will think they are doing a holy service for God.”

Matthew 10:22, “And you will be hated by all for My name’s sake. But he who endures to the end will be saved.”

By Stoyan Zaimov, The Christian Post – “The Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram is allegedly planning to declare holy war on Southern Nigeria, where most Christians are concentrated, and might use food poisoning tactics to kill as many as possible, according to the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN).

‘We have information and documents to show that this is a Jihad being sponsored and we have our documents to show where they have dispatched 2,000 people to prepare for Jihad to South East, 2,500 to South-South and about 2,000 to South West,’ said Bishop Emmanuel Chukwuma, CAN Chairman and Anglican Bishop of Enugu Diocese.

The organization also warned that Boko Haram, responsible for killing hundreds of Christians since 2011 with church bombings and shootings, is planning to lace meat in these southern areas with poisonous powder. CAN specifically warned residents to be careful about eating suya, which is a shish kebab-type food that can be made with various types of meats.

According to a report from Vangard, Bishop Chukwuma said: ‘We are warning our people to be careful of suya because we have now heard that they will start poisoning people through suya. They know the suya they give themselves in the North and suya they give to the people in the South. So people should be careful of suya.

‘That is part of the information available to us now. There is a powder that is now being imported which they will spread on suya and after two weeks it will start eating your liver and other organs. We have gotten that information also.’

Boko Haram directly admitted in a recent statement to wanting to wipe out Christians from Nigeria and establish Islamist rule.” Read more.

Flashback: Nigeria: ‘Proud Soldiers Of Allah’ Vows To Take Down Government And Destroy Christianity, ‘We Will Devour You … Our Joy Is To Die In Jihad’ – “Islamist sect, Boko Haram, has threatened to bring down the Federal Government led by President Goodluck Jonathan within three months. Purported leader of the sect said this in his second video posted on the Internet yesterday… ‘You, Jonathan, cannot stop us; instead we will devour you in the three months like you are boasting … We are proud soldiers of Allah; we will never give up as we fight the infidels. We will emerge as winners … we will finish you and end your government … for us, [death] is eternal victory to die working for Allah. Our joy is to die in Jihad for Allah … We are not doing physical human service, but Allah’s work … We are not afraid because we are not doing man’s work but Allah’s work…” Read more.

Revelation 13:15, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

Acts 14:22b, “… ‘We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.’”

ICC – “International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that members of the Nigerian Islamic group, Boko Haram, plan to make the month of June ‘the bloodiest month yet’ in terms of attacks on Christians and promise more bloody attacks on Christians in the coming days.

The Islamists revealed their plan in their statement to Sahara Reporters, a New York based online news agency yesterday. In the past three weeks alone, more than 100 people have been killed in suicide bomb attacks by Boko Haram and the ensuing clashes between Christians and Muslims.

‘I can’t dismiss the rumor and I can’t 100 percent accept that it will happen. But because of the trend of events, there is every possibility that something like that will happen,’ said Rev. Lawi P. Pokti in an interview with ICC. Rev. Pokti is the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Bauchi state.

‘We should pray and watch. We should also remember that Jesus said in the world there is tribulation but with Him there is peace,’ said Rev. Pokti in his message to Christians in Nigeria.

Addressing the Nigerian security officials, Rev. Pokti said, ‘My message for Nigerian security is that they are called to serve the Nigerian nation so they should do it without religious bias. They should defend the nation irrespective of one’s religion so that peace will prevail in the nation.’

ICC’s Regional Manager for Africa, Jonathan Racho, said, ‘This latest threat by Boko Haram to mass murder Christians is extremely alarming. The Nigerian government has utterly failed to protect its citizens from attacks by Boko Haram. It has been years since Boko Haram declared war against unarmed Christians. Where is the Nigerian government when the country is descending into a devastating civil war? It is high time for Nigeria to deploy all its military forces to crush Boko Haram. Boko Haram must be destroyed before it is allowed to destroy Nigeria. We also call upon our supporters to call Nigerian government officials and strongly urge them to prevent the attacks by Boko Haram.'” Source – ICC.

Allah Has Spoken: Islamists In Nigeria Tell Christians To Follow Islam ‘Or There Will Be No Peace’ – “A militant Islamist group claimed responsibility Monday for bombings the day before that the Nigerian Red Cross said left 50 people dead at three Christian churches in Nigeria… ‘Let them know that now it’s the time for revenge God willing,’ the group said in a statement. ‘From now on, they either follow the right religion or there will be no peace for them.’” Read more.

By Emmanuel Oladesu and Joseph Abiodun, The Nation – “Maiduguri residents were told yesterday to prepare for more suicide bombings.

The Joint Task Force (JTF) – Operation Restore Order (ORO) – in a statement by its spokesman Lt. Col. Sagir Musa, warned of plans by terrorists to carry Impoverished Explosive Devices (IEDs) in stolen vehicles. It warned the public to report to the appropriate bodies immediately a vehicle is stolen.

The statement reads: ‘Information recently available to the JTF ORO in Maiduguri indicated that there have been desperate moves by Boko Haram terrorists to steal/snatch vehicles to be used for terrorists’ activities by implanting Improvised Explosive Devices in vehicles and or through suicide bombing.

‘The Task Force wishes to alert members of the public, particularly those whose vehicles have been stolen, to immediately report such incident to the nearest police station or to the JTF as such vehicles if used for terrorism acts would lead to owners of such vehicles being treated as collaborators and accomplices.’

The JTF spokesman said the task force’s troops and Department of State Services personnel have arrested six suspected Boko Haram members involved in the attack on EYN Church in Biu, Borno State, on June 17. Some worshippers were killed.

Those arrested are in JTF custody and are being interrogated.

Also yesterday, Prelate of Methodist Church Nigeria Dr. Sunday Ola Makinde warned that ‘if something serious, strategic and meaningful is not done, we may just be working our way towards another avoidable civil war.’

Speaking in Lagos against the backdrop of the recent coordinated bombings in Kaduna and Zaria, the Prelate said:

‘For how long are we going to remain silent? Here we are begging the issue while innocent people are dying and their loved ones are yet to get justice. Is it a crime to be a Christian in any part of Nigeria? Every time we raise the alarm and call for action, they will say it has no religious colouration which saddens my heart the more whenever I hear that.

‘Before Sunday’s bombings, no fewer than 200 people have been killed in 12 separate attacks on churches or places of Christian worship in the North so far this year and al-Qaeda-linked Islamist terror group Boko Haram has explicitly claimed that it carried out at least 10 of them. Yet we are scratching the matter on the surface rather than intensify efforts and expose those behind these attacks. No fewer than 40 persons were feared killed on Sunday in Kaduna and Zaria as suicide bombers attacked three churches.

‘And in all of these bombings and attacks on Christians and Churches, no person has been arrested or brought to book. Where are we going? Where is justice? This is what is encouraging this culture of impunity, which makes it difficult for one to ascertain if the Government has the political will needed in tackling this menace headlong.” Read more.

1 Peter 2:5, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

But apparently these sacrifices must cease immediately when Islamists demand it …

By Mathias Hariyadi, Asianews.it – “Jakarta (AsiaNews) – A mob of Muslim extremists attacked a Christian prayer house in Aceh Province. The building was damaged and worshippers were forced to stop the service. Local witnesses, who asked their names be withheld, said that the attack occurred last Sunday, during worship. The place itself belongs to the Indonesian Bethel Church.

The fundamentalist attack was apparently caused by a lack of building permit (Izin Mendirikan Bangunan in Indonesian), a claim Christians deny. More disheartening for the members of the congregation is the fact that the attack occurred under the eyes of the police, which did not lift a finger, except to place seals on the building after the incident.

The Indonesian Bethel Church where the attack took place is located in Peunayong, capital of the province of Banda Aceh.

The mob struck during Sunday prayer. Hundreds of attackers hurled stones and pebbles against the building, causing major damages to the structures.

Eyewitnesses confirmed that the police stood idly by as the incident unfolded, whilst worshippers had to evacuate the building, seeking refuge in a safer location.

Human rights activists and associations slammed the extremist raid, noting that it occurred in a place that had been characterised by relative calm and a ‘pluralistic environment’.

Aceh, Indonesia’s westernmost province, is also the only part of the archipelago where Sharia is enforced. Provincial authorities use a morality police, a special street-level law enforcement unit, to crack down on people who violate the local moral code.

Under Governor Irwandy Yusuf, a former rebel fighter, there was some degree of interreligious peace and harmony between the Muslim majorities and non-Muslim ‘foreigners’. However, things have recently changed. As fundamentalists gained more power and freedom to act, religious minorities have come under attack.” Read more.

By Roche Madden, KPLR – “ST .LOUIS, MO (KTVI) – Two St. Louis area men said they have received death threats from Iran and they are taking those threats seriously. The said a fatwa, or religious decree, has been put on their heads.

The letter was sent to Ali Bahkti and his pastor Mike Salazar. The envelope indicates it is from Tehran, Iran. It is apparently signed by a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Army. Mike Salazar said, ‘It`s a death threat very simply.’ Ali Bakhti added, ‘Religious decree to kill.’ Salazar said, ‘It`s something to be taken seriously.’

Ali Bakhti said he once served in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard when he was a teenager. Bakhti said, ‘Dirty bombs, convert civilian streets into a mine fields.’ He said he was even assigned a suicide mission, to blow up an Israeli disco. But, he had a dramatic change of heart and faith and converted to Christianity and moved to the U.S. He met Pastor Salazar at church and since then the two have been spreading their beliefs to church goers. The two men believe that Islam is a religion that could easily radicalize a Muslim into a terrorist.

Salazar said, ‘Our message isn`t to offend Muslims.’ But, it apparently has. Now the two are under a death decree that they fear could be carried out any moment. They say that won`t stop them from preaching what they strongly believe in. Bakhti said, ‘I`m doing it for the kingdom of God.’ Salazar said, ‘Even if you die doing it.’” Read more.

Flashback: Islamic Militants Calling Themselves ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam’ Threaten to Hunt Down and Execute Christians Who Flee Iran – “Islamic militants with suspected ties to Iranian security forces have been terrorizing evangelical Christians with threats to ‘repent’ or die, it was reported Sunday. Christian Solidarity Worldwide has reported that 11 Iranian Christians who fled Iran in the wake of a government campaign against Christianity have received threats via email to ‘repent’ or face extrajudicial execution, from a group identifying itself as the ‘The Unknown Soldiers of The Hidden Imam.’ The threatening emails that were sent to each individual on Sept. 14 aspired to extend the arm of Iranian Islamic militancy beyond the borders of Iran by implying that, although the recipients have left Iran, they have not escaped the ‘acute eyes of the unknown soldiers.’” Read more.

Abuja, Nigeria (CNN) — A militant Islamist group claimed responsibility Monday for bombings the day before that the Nigerian Red Cross said left 50 people dead at three Christian churches in Nigeria.

Boko Haram said the attacks Sunday in the Nigerian cities of Zaria and Kaduna were retaliation on Christians for destroying mosques and, according to the group, turning others into ‘beer parlour and prostitution joints.’

‘Let them know that now it’s the time for revenge God willing,’ the group said in a statement. ‘From now on, they either follow the right religion or there will be no peace for them.’

Government and Red Cross figures on the death toll in Sunday’s attacks differed. However, the bombings at two churches and a third in Kaduna left at least 50 people dead and 131 wounded according to the Red Cross.

Kaduna state officials loosened a 24-hour curfew imposed after the attacks, saying people could be on the streets from 2 to 6 p.m. However, resident Anthony Majindadi said most people were staying indoors and his area still looked like a ghost town.

The series of attacks began when a suicide bomber drove at high speed through a barricade at the EWCA Goodnews Wusasa Zaria church around 9 a.m., congregation member Lucy Bello said.

A Kaduna state official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said that blast killed at least 24 people and injured 125.

The Nigerian Red Cross Society, however, reported that two people died and 22 were injured in the attack.

Within minutes, another explosion occurred at the Christ the King Catholic Church in Zaria, according to Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency.

At least 10 people died and more than 50 were injured in that attack, the state government official said.

Again, the Nigerian Red Cross Society offered a conflicting report, saying 16 people died and 31 were injured in the attack.

Later, at least 10 people died in a bombing at a church in the city of Kaduna, Red Cross spokesman Andronicus Adeyemo said.

The Red Cross said 32 people died and 78 were injured in the third blast and ensuing reprisal attacks by Christians on Muslims.

Christian youths in Zaria and Kaduna burned mosques and property belonging to Muslims, according to the Vanguard newspaper in Nigeria.” Read more.

By GODWIN ATTAH, Associated Press – “Three suicide bomb attacks on churches rocked a northern Nigerian state Sunday, killing at least 21 people and wounding about 100, officials said, prompting protests in a state that has previously been strained by religious tensions.

The first two blasts occurred within minutes of each other and targeted two churches in the city of Zaria, said Kaduna State police chief Mohammed Abubakar Jinjiri. A third blast hit a church in the city of Kaduna about half an hour later, Jinjiri said.

An official working for a relief agency involved in rescue efforts said Sunday evening that 21 people had been killed and that at least 100 people were wounded in Sunday’s blasts. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he said he wasn’t authorized to speak to journalists.

Earlier in the day, Nigerian Red Cross official Andronicus Adeyemo said the Zaria attacks killed the bomber and at least one other person and left 51 wounded. The Kaduna attack claimed 10 more lives, he said, and wounded 29 people.

Jinjiri said security at the three churches prevented the suicide bombers from ramming explosive-laden cars into the buildings filled with worshippers.

‘If not for security, there would have been (many) more casualties,’ Jinjiri said.

Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence in Nigeria. The situation has led churches in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north to boost their security in a nation of more than 160 million people almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians.” Read more.

Boko Haram: Our Goal is to Eliminate Followers of Christ – “Terrorist organisation Boko Haram has issued a statement making clear that its goal is to eliminate followers of Christ from Nigeria and establish an Islamic state. ‘The Nigerian state and Christians are our enemies and we will be launching attacks on the Nigerian state and its security apparatus as well as churches until we achieve our goal of establishing an Islamic state in place of the secular state,’ Boko Haram stated in no uncertain terms in the statement published by the Osun Defender on Thursday. ‘We are responsible for the suicide attack on a church in Jos and also another attack on another church in Biu,’ a spokesman for the group, Abul Qaqa, is said to have told reporters in the northeastern city of Maiduguri over the phone.” Read more.

ICC – “By now, many of you know about the unspeakable level of violence against Christians in Nigeria. But I warn you: do not be fooled by what the media tells us. The truth is, you cannot fully grasp the plight of the persecuted Christians in Nigeria until you actually visit them. That is why I decided to fly to Nigeria to see to myself what is really happening to the persecuted church there. Nothing prepared me to what I saw.

I experienced the pain of the Christians in northern Nigeria in less than an hour after I landed in the country. My host Rev. Samuel Ayoba (name changed for security reasons) picked me up from the airport and we started driving to the city of Kaduna. As we drove, my mind started to wonder to the different stories I have read about attacks on Christians. Hoping that it was just me, I asked Rev. Ayoba, ‘How safe is this road? Are we going to be stopped by the Islamic radicals and get killed?’ Instead of reassuring me of our safety, the reverend looked into my eyes and said, ‘Anything could happen. All we could do is to entrust ourselves to God.’ As soon as I heard those words, I felt the pain of living in constant fear. I noticed that we were the only car on the road, and my mind became clouded with suspicion and questions: It’s getting late. Where are the other cars? When will we get there? But I told myself not to be shaken and focus on trusting the Lord.

As we drove towards Kaduna, I saw several mosques. A friend told me that Muslims receive funds from Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Muslim countries to build the mosques. Some of those mosques are then used for teaching hatred against Christians.

When we finally arrived in Kaduna, it was obvious to see evidence of violence in the city. There were check points every few miles. Shortly before I arrived, Islamists carried out a suicide bomb attack targeting a church. They missed their target, but the attacker killed over 40, mainly Muslims who happened to be near the church.

I stayed in Nigeria for 10 days. During my time there, I spoke with dozens of victims of persecution. I visited villages decimated by Islamic violence. One of the saddest days of the trip was when I was asked to speak at the funeral of a Christian who was killed. The man was killed after he visited his father, an evangelist who is living among Muslims.

I came face to face with what it means to go through persecution. I was also reminded of how important it is to stand with the body of Christ that undergoes persecution. I came back from Nigeria with the passion to work more to help the oppressed. One of the victims that ICC helped said to me, “You make us feel that somebody cares for us.” Let us continue making them feel that they are loved!” Source – Persecution.org.

“Syria (CAM) ― An indigenous missionary from nearby Lebanon crossed the border to baptize a believer last week. Instead, he had to bury the believer — shot in the head as a martyr for his recently-found faith in Jesus Christ.

Native missionaries continue to share Gospel CD’s, baptizing new believers, and delivering food and medical aid to suffering Christians in Syria while violence rages around them. More help is needed each day according to one of the ministries in Syria being assisted by Christian Aid Mission based in Charlottesville, Virginia. A Lebanese team is preparing to deliver more aid as soon as funds arrive from the USA to buy supplies at the local market.*

‘Right now,’ said the missionary leader at his base in Lebanon,’there is no food or medicine left. The economy has come to a standstill, and there is no work.’ Many Christians are sick and starving, along with other minorities such as the Bedouins and Gypsies.

‘This has been one of the longest weeks of my life,’ the missionary told Christian Aid. ‘To visit Syria, I had to sneak in through the mountains and not go by normal roads.

‘I went there to bury a friend who died last week. I was supposed to be baptizing him, but I ended up doing his funeral. I led him to Christ two years ago. He was a key helper in the ministry. He was shot in the head. Why? Because he had become a Christian. Now revenge is taking place.’

The slain Christian had been witnessing to many friends and neighbors and had led a growing house church that met in his home with 43 other believers. He was actively involved in delivering aid to some 600 Syrian Christians in his area.

‘Lots of people came to the funeral. In the beginning, I did not know how to start the service. Then I decided to share some letters of encouragement from the churches. I invited several of the believers to read in front of the meeting. They were so encouraged to know that they are not alone. By the time we were done, there were tears of joy instead of sadness. As it says in the Word, when one member suffers, all suffer.’

The Lebanese leader of the mission is preparing now to go back to Syria with Bibles, CD’s, food and medicine.” Read more.