This week's persecuted church: Nigeria

Police discovered the body of a 79-year-old Christian woman killed in northeast Nigeria, with a note in Arabic left on her chest reading: "We will get you soon," a witness said Thursday.

Her killers slit the woman's throat, then wrote a note with red pen they left on her chest, witness Audu Ibrahim said. Ibrahim said the woman's family believes the message is for her son, who is a pastor of a local church where the 79-year-old sang in the choir.

Thought of the Day:  LH
Song of the Day:  Panic-내 낡은 서랍 속의 바다

This week's persecuted church: Eritrea

A friend of Ruta’s sister, Zula, likewise attracted attention because of her ‘strange’ behaviour – she had refused to drink and dance at a military camp party. When asked about this, she admitted that she was a “Pente” and was immediately taken to prison.

Zula and Yonas were offered the chance to sign a statement, Ruta says, promising to abstain from practising their faith as a condition for release.

Both declined. Whereas Yonas spent two years in prison and returned to the army, Zula remains in custody.

“Until now, five years later, while my sister has been studying and has achieved so many things, Zula is still in prison because she decided to follow Jesus,” Ruta says.

According to USCIRF’s Annual Report 2011, there are between 2,000 and 3,000 people being held hostage by the authorities on religious grounds. Prisoners face horrendous conditions, such as being kept in airless metal containers in the desert heat or herded like animals in underground cells without toilet facilities.

Many contract diseases due to the lack of hygiene, while others die from starvation and hunger. The ones who do survive are tortured on a daily basis.

“It is physical but most of all mental punishment”, Ruta says. “There are so many things they do to the prisoners.”

She explains that prisoners are forced to do “ridiculous things”, like counting the grains of sand in the burning sun in the middle of the desert. The heat and the humiliating work makes some of them “lose it”.

For her there are only two options: “Either you come out stronger or you get crazy.”

Yonas’ experience has strengthened his faith and he told Ruta that the more they punished him, the more he loved God.

Thought of the Day:  Dominoes
Song of the Day:  BoA-Eat You Up

Dejuj Kries

Student:  Teacher, what is Dejuj Kries?
Me:  Where did you hear that?
Student:  My teacher she always said, "Believe in Dejuj Kries!"

So apparently, my student had a substitute teacher who always taught about Jesus in his computer and math class.  She ended up getting fired because she wasn't really teaching what she was supposed to be teaching.  A clear breach in state and church.  But what was interesting was how upset my atheistic student was with these "strong believers" of Christianity.  He began to tell me about another negative experience he had with a woman who was evangelizing to him on the street and saying that he would suffer painfully in hell for not believing in God.  My student is just entering 6th grade.  As you can imagine, he has a pretty bad image of evangelistic Christians.

Brennan Manning said that "the greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians..."  I remember hearing that for the first time in middle school and being surprised by such a profound idea and statement.  But through the years of being surrounded by both Christians and non-Christians, the surprise has only been replaced by sadness.  When people ask me questions about the Bible, my answers are inadequate and poor.  When people view my life, it is inconsistent with what I profess to believe.  When people see my Christian brothers and sisters, they don't see a community of believers.  I'm sad because I know that I too am a cause of atheism in the world today.

But thank goodness that God is greater than my failures and even the poor preaching and presentation of Dejuj Kries.

Thought of the Day:  STOP NORTH KOREAN REFUGEE EXECUTION!
Song of the Day:  Taru-Summer Day

The Jeremy Lin Show

My my my.

This week's persecuted church: Saudi Arabia

A Christian leader from Saudi Arabia explained: “The Saudi officials are accusing the Christians of committing the crime of mixing of sexes because if they charge them with meeting for practicing Christianity, they will come under pressure from the international human-rights organizations as well as Western countries. In fact, when an employer of one of the detainees asked for the reason for their employee’s arrest, the Saudi official told him that it was for practicing Christianity.”

Saudi officials strip-searched all the women and subjected them to an abusive body-cavity search, and assaulted the men. In a remarkable prison interview with the Voice of America’s Amharic-language service, one of the women, who contracted an infection from the search, attested: “We are traumatized by the strip search. They treated us like dogs because of our Christian faith. While talking about me during a recent visit to the prison medical center, I overheard a nurse telling a doctor ‘if she dies, we will put her in a trash bin.’”

Thought of the Day:  Resource Conflict
Song of the Day:  Humming Urban Stereo-넌 그날 (Gros Câlin Mix)

This week's persecuted church: India

Hindu extremists barged into a prayer meeting led by a pastor and beat him and stripped him naked.  They shouted at the Christians in coarse language as they started beating and kicking the pastor before parading the naked pastor in a procession throughout the village.  At about midnight they tied the pastor to a tree near a temple and sent for police.  The police took him into custody for questioning, was charged and locked up, but was later released the same night.

Thought of the Day:  Wedding Fairs
Song of the Day:  SNSD-Mr. Taxi