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

Praying Till We Pray

¨

Dr. Moody Stuart, a great praying man of a past generation, once drew up a set of rules to guide him in his prayers. Among these rules is this one: “Pray till you pray.”

 

The difference between praying till you quit and praying till you pray is illustrated by the American evangelist John Wesley Lee. He often likened a season of prayer to a church service, and insisted that many of us close the meeting before the service is over. He confessed that once he arose too soon from a prayer session and started down the street to take care of some pressing business. He had only gone a short distance when an inner voice reproached him. “Son,” the voice seemed to say, “did you not pronounce the benediction before the meeting was ended?” He understood, and at once hurried back to the place of prayer where he tarried till the burden lifted and the blessing came down.

 

The habit of breaking off our prayers before we have truly prayed is as common as it is unfortunate. Often the last ten minutes may mean more to us than the first half hour, because we must spend a long time getting into the proper mood to pray effectively. We may need to struggle with our thoughts to draw them in from where they have been scattered through the multitude of distractions that result from the task of living in a disordered world.

 

Here, as elsewhere in spiritual matters, we must be sure to distinguish the ideal from the real. Ideally we should be living moment-by-moment in a state of such perfect union with God that no special preparation is necessary. But actually there are few who can honestly say that this is their experience. Candor will compel most of us to admit that we often experience a struggle before we can escape from the emotional alienation and sense of unreality that sometimes settle over us as a sort of prevailing mood.

 

Whatever a dreamy idealism may say, we are forced to deal with things down on the level of practical reality. If when we come to prayer our hearts feel dull and unspiritual, we should not try to argue ourselves out of it. Rather, we should admit it frankly and pray our way through. Some Christians smile at the thought of “praying through,” but something of the same idea is found in the writings of practically every great praying saint from Daniel to the present day. We cannot afford to stop praying till we have actually prayed.

 

A.W. Tozer

Beijing House Churches Forced

¨

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

Praying according to pattern # 01

 

The Son invites us to pray. It is the Son who arranges for prayer and prayer answers. He, the only begotten Son, bids us to pray, and in our prayers follow a set pattern. It is the Son who directs our hearts to the Father. Prayer and intercession belong to the world of the children. Prayer and praying will forever be anchored in the realm of the Fathers love. The Son knows how to guide us along this path, it was his own. The Son knows how to lead the praying heart to grow and become an experienced heart, bringing salvation to completeness through his own prayer. He secured this path, declaring it to be safe and passable, form his position as the Son of man and as the Son of God he welcomes every man to become a sojourner. The Son speaks: “Follow me”.

 

Prayer belongs to the world of children. Praying, a natural part of children’s behaviour. In this we find the mystery of being a Christian, the key to fullness and completeness. Children trust in fatherhood and reach out to embrace a true father. Children learn how to formulate words, how to attract a father’s ear. And the Father is listening. To all who receive Him, He has already reserved the right to be children. Prayer fully expresses a child’s rights, rights which include the most intimate fellowship with the Most High. And the Father carefully follows the slightest move, the weakest modulation. He takes in each and every syllable uttered. He listens truly. His heart knows.

 

Prayer, asking for things, belongs to a child’s rights. The King rejoices, under the hand of the Spirit of adoption, and says: “Know that the LORD has set apart the faithful for Himself; the LORD will hear when I call to Him”. Ps 4:3. The open heart, the broken heart, the soul who waits in silence for God only, this kind of personality opens for the embrace of the Father. Prayer belong children’s rights, established according to eternal rulings, upheld and covered by the One who cares for the fatherless. Let us recover this reality to be ours, to become our guideline. Let us pray ourselves into the freedom of children to explore the patterns laid before us and to pray accordingly in the midst of the fellowship of the saints.

 

The words of the Son to every one of us: “Follow me.” He has more to say: “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in Me and I in him produces much fruit, because you can do nothing without Me.” John 15:5. You can do no prayer without me. Outside my pattern of prayer there is no prayer. A child’s prayer follows the heavenly order. A child’s prayer reaches out for fullness, for complete salvation. The prayers of the children, of all the saints, encapsulate an ever escalating request for a full-orbed expression of the life of Christ within and among themselves.

 

The words of the Son to every one of us: “Follow me.” The road he takes carries the dual designation ‘Redemption’ and ‘Reconciliation’. The way-mark of the road he chooses points to openness and honesty – the ones still using the older language would choose words like godliness and righteousness. Children’s prayer mobilises forgiveness, they are like peace-brokers in the sandpit. The intercession of the saints, prayed according to the pattern of the Lord provides life – like the branch which carries the life of the root and trunk for the formation of fruit. The prayer of a righteous man is like the life of the branch, “like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither.” Ps 1. This is the order according to the Father’s will. This is the order according to which the revelation of the Kingdom will disperse.

 

To pray together with the Son of Man, together with the Lord Jesus Christ, is to stand on behalf of men before the Living God. To pray is in its initial stages a quest for the prayers of the Son of God, prayers that will reach the Father’s ear. This kind of prayer will bring us in contact with reality, with every part of reality. It will produce a proper view of the upheaval and turmoil at hand in the world which is ours to care for. It allows for insight into the ways of the Lord in our days. This kind of prayer will secure our own path in between the many highways and byways, all of them ready to take us to nowheresville. To pray according to pattern together with the Lord Jesus acquires and apprehends salvation where no words seem to cover the subject. To pray the prayers of our Lord is to be made able to pass through in areas and regions where no breaking tool bites, where everything is labelled ’impossible’. To pray according to the Lord is to allow weakness become our strength. Children, who know the Father, dare to come this way.

Let us pray for the development and growth of a prayer life of this kind. Let us open our hearths and mouths before each other.

 

Lars Widerberg

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

LAOS: Authorities detain 90 Christians

 

Authorities in Laos have detained or arrested at least 90 Christians in three provinces in recent weeks, including an arrest last Sunday (Aug. 3) of a pastor and two other believers from a house church in Boukham village, Savannakhet province.

 

Arrests were reported in the southern provinces of Saravan and Savannakhet and in Luang Prabang province in the north. In one incident on July 21, Compass sources said officials detained 80 Christians in Katin village, Saravan province, after residents seized a Christian neighbor identified only as Pew and poured rice wine down his throat, killing him by asphyxiation.

 

When mourning family members buried the Christian and put a wooden cross on the grave, village officials accused them of “practicing the rituals of the enemy of the state” and seized a buffalo and pig from the family as a fine.

 

On July 25, according to Human Rights Watch for Lao Religious Freedom, officials rounded up 17 of the 20 Christian families in the village – a total of 80 men, women and children – and detained them in a local school compound, denying them food for three days in an attempt to force the adults to sign documents renouncing their faith.

 

Network