This is from the Barnabas Fund, an organization dedicated to helping persecuted Christians around the world.
There is probably no better way to keep one’s finger on the pulse of the world and to understand current trends than to follow what is happening to the Christian Church (meaning the spiritual Church, not the institutional), and of course, to Israel. To see how the world is treating God’s people is to observe the barometer of the approaching spiritual climate. It does not look good. There is a spiritual storm coming that will be like no other event in history. Be prepared.
More and more, Christians and Jews are being persecuted while the world in general looks away. By the world’s own obsession with lip service to human rights, animal rights and the environment, it is condemning itself and becoming an accessory by specifically ignoring this slaughter. Those abusing the children of God also show contempt for their Father. How the world treats true Christians and Jews is a marker for the world’s spiritual health.
I encourage all Christians to support our persecuted brethren around the world. One way to start is by supporting organizations such as The Barnabas Fund. They have a news and prayer letter to which you can subscribe.
The news article follows below.
SOMALIA
Four Christian teachers murdered in Somalia:
Four Christian teachers, two of them converts from Islam, were murdered by Islamic militants last Sunday, 13 April, in Beledweyne in south-central Somalia.
Mr Daud Assan Ali (aged 64), Ms Rehana Ahmed (aged 32), both of Somali origin, and two Kenyans were shot and killed when militants stormed the school where the Christians were sleeping.
Both Mr Ali and Ms Ahmed lived in the UK and were converts from Islam to Christianity. Mr Ali returned to his home town in 2004 to realise his life-long dream of establishing a school. The Hiran community education project Private English School was only completed one month ago. In his blog for supporters of the school, Mr Ali expressed concern about night-time raids by militant fighters in his last posting on 30 March.
A spokesman for the Islamist group responsible for the attack on the town claimed that the killings were not premeditated, but that the four teachers had been caught in cross fire. However, several residents of Beledweyne are convinced that Mr Ali and his colleagues were singled out because they were Christians and the Islamists feared that they were teaching their pupils about Christianity. Mr Ali’s wife also said in an interview that her husband had been targeted because he was a convert from Islam to Christianity.
There are a tiny number of Somali converts to Christianity living in Somalia, many of whom have been murdered in recent years by Islamic radicals, who have vowed to wipe out all Somali Christians. Recent fighting between Somali Islamic militias and Ethiopia has heightened anti-Christian feelings, as there is a long history of conflict between Somalis, who historically have all been Muslims, and Ethiopians, who historically have been majority Christian.
“Somali converts from Islam to Christianity are specially at risk at this moment in time. They need our prayers urgently,” says Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, International Director of Barnabas Fund.
Please join with us in prayer…
1. Please pray for the families and loved ones of those killed. Pray that the Lord will comfort them and keep them strong.
2. Pray for the small number of Somali Christians, all converts from Islam, both in Somalia and in other countries, that God will protect them from violence and further attacks.
The Barnabas Fund – Four Christian teachers murdered in Somalia: – 18 April 2008
STUMBLE IT!
An SIM Somali Evangelist Arrested in Ethiopia
Somali Missions, 31st May 2009
Additional reporting by Tadese Gebremeskel
Evangelist Bashir Ahmed, 37, was arrested in Jijiga, the regional capital of the Somali Region of Ethiopia.
The Sudan Interior Mission supported missionary was distributing Somali Bibles when arrested on May 14th, 2009.
Evangelist Ahmed who previously served in Khartoum, Sudan, is an Ethnic Somali Ethiopian from Eastern Ethiopia; he belongs to the dominant Ogaden clan in the region.
Evangelist Ahmed is currently behind bars in Jijiga accused of “causing religious disharmony” in Jijiga.
Though it is legal to be a Christian in the Muslim dominated Somali Region, aggressive evangelism is not tolerated.
An expatriate SIM missionary who labors among Somalis has confirmed to Somali Missions about Evangelist Ahmed’s arrest and charges.
Source: Somali Missions, May 31, 2009.
This is more of a short news release than a comment. Any more info, or source? I cannot find anything relevant on a search for ‘Somali Missions’. If you can give me more info, and with your permission, I can post something on Twitter.