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Refugees Learn to Love Your Neighbor
by Lindsay Steele
Mission Network News
"The volunteers are themselves refugees, helping their fellow refugees. Partners says these volunteers live by one rule: Love your neighbor..."
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![]() Refugees Learn to Love Your Neighbor by Lindsay Steele Mission Network News "In June 2011, the Burma Army broke a 17-year ceasefire in Kachin State, displacing over 120,000 innocent civilians. Many have fled to refugee camps, where access to food and healthcare is limited and the risk of trafficking is high. In these places of despair, Partners Relief and Development has been working with local organizations to train and equip an amazing group of volunteers to lend a helping hand.
"The volunteers are themselves refugees, helping their fellow refugees. Partners says these volunteers live by one rule: Love your neighbor..."
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“'The ceasefire that never was” could be describing a lot of situations around the world, but this one is between Eastern Ukraine and Russia. "Although an accord went into effect in September, there have been continued skirmishes, cross-border troop movements, and a mounting casualty toll. Talks are scheduled to take place this week between military representatives of Ukraine, Russia, and the rebels to discuss a new peace deal in the Donetsk region. There is a December 5 ceasefire in place, in principle, but acts of war continue.
"This war is no longer in the daily headlines, but it grinds on: out of sight, out of mind. Now, there’s another dimension to it. Canada’s ambassador for religious freedom, Andrew Bennett, accuses Russian of using intimidation tactics in Crimea and eastern Ukraine. These tactics seem to be focusing on religious groups. Slavic Gospel Association VP of Ministry Operations Eric Mock agrees, but not for the reason you might think. He explains, “We’ve seen a ‘circling of the wagons’ for that which is Russian Orthodox, and that which is Russian–which are one and the same. Therefore, anything outside of that is not good.” "There have been reports of persecution, too. But is what’s happening due to Communism, or is it due to a rise in nationalism? “'As Russia begins to move forward, that which is counter to that, which in Crimea would be your Ukrainian Orthodoxy, your Ukrainian Baptists, and even other Muslim groups are seen as counter to the good of Russian progress and the Russian people...'” ![]() Police in Sudan Attack Worshipping Congregation, Arrest 38 Christians Church members released after paying fine. December 3, 2014 By Our Sudan Correspondent Leave a Comment Arrested Christians of Bahri Evangelical Church in jail in North Khartoum.
NAIROBI, Kenya Morning Star News Police in North Khartoum, Sudan yesterday beat, arrested and fined 38 Christians worshipping at Khartoum Bahri Evangelical Church, sources said. After nearly two weeks of raiding and demolishing church property, officers armed with guns and batons arrived at the church compound at 6:30 a.m. on two trucks accompanied by seven smaller vehicles and broke through the main gate, beating whoever they found in church complex, sources said. Security personnel surrounded the complex, preventing people from entering or leaving, they said. Police then started to beat worshippers and arrested 38 for refusing to surrender the property, eyewitnesses said. “We have enjoyed worshipping and praising God in prison,” one of the arrested Christians told Morning Star News by phone, before it was confiscated. “The power of God was present among us; let the name of God be praised and glorified from now and evermore.” Police severely beat church elder Daud Bashir and tore his clothes. Officers also beat a female member who was rushed to hospital for treatment, sources said. Leaders of the Sudan Presbyterian Evangelical Church (SPEC)-affiliated congregation added that police demolished a fence constructed by church youth as sign of their refusal to surrender worship property. Police took the Christians to Khartoum North Police Station before they were transferred to Khartoum North Court. The charges against them included Article 77 of the notorious Public Order Law of 1991, which gives police broad powers to arrest Christians and other lowly regarded people without cause, for creating a public disturbance. The Christians were released last night after being sentenced to pay a fine of $250 each, sources said. “Personally, I am not upset because this is my first time to be sentenced in court for Jesus,” another Christian told Morning Star News. Five church leaders arrested on Nov. 25 were released that same night and were not on the premises yesterday morning. Christians in Sudan are asking their counterparts worldwide to pray for the church in Sudan. With Muslim investors laying claim to the land based on an agreement signed by a government-installed church committee that church leaders say did not legally represent the church, a bulldozer accompanied by security personnel and police knocked down a wall of the church and houses on Nov. 17-18. Christians formed a human barrier to face down further demolition attempts on Nov. 19-20. One of the homes destroyed in the compound belonged to Nile Theological College; a Christian doctor had rented it, and he lost all his belongings, sources said. The bulldozer, accompanied by National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS) personnel and police, carried out the demolitions based on a court order demanding that church leaders surrender the premises to Muslim investors. The church committee of members that the Sudanese government interposed made a secret agreement with the investors to sell the church property as part of Sudan’s campaign to do away with Christianity in the country, church leaders said. Church members regard the committee that arranged the transfer of the property to business interests as a “government puppet committee” supporting the government agenda to do away with Christianity. Last month authorities destroyed the home of pastor Hafiz Fasaha at the SPEC church compound after ordering personnel inside to leave the premises, church leaders said. Authorities told the Christians a Muslim businessman owned the land and that they had a court order calling for the use of force to take over the property. While the church blames the government for the court order that it surrender the property, a representative of the Muslim businessmen laying claim to it has said a contract was signed about four years ago giving them the right to invest in the land for a period of up to 20 years. The representative asserts that because of church opposition he had to go to the government to take the land by force. Church leaders hold ownership papers to the property and believe any contract surrendering it comes from a government ruse. Harassment, arrests and persecution of Christians have intensified since the secession of South Sudan in 2011, when Bashir vowed to adopt a stricter version of sharia (Islamic law) and recognize only Islamic culture and the Arabic language. The Sudanese Minister of Guidance and Endowments announced in April 2013 that no new licenses would be granted for building new churches in Sudan, citing a decrease in the South Sudanese population. On Oct. 5, 2013, Sudan’s police and security forces broke through the church fence, beat and arrested Christians in the compound and asserted parts of the property belonged to a Muslim investor accompanying them. As Muslims nearby shouted, “Allahu Akbar [God is greater],” plainclothes police and personnel from NISS broke onto the property aboard a truck and two Land Cruisers. After beating several Christians who were in the compound, they arrested some of them; they were all released later that day. Following the secession of South Sudan in July 2011, Sudan since 2012 has expelled foreign Christians and bulldozed church buildings on the pretext that they belonged to South Sudanese. Besides raiding Christian bookstores and arresting Christians, authorities threatened to kill South Sudanese Christians who do not leave or cooperate with them in their effort to find other Christians (see Morning Star News). Due to its treatment of Christians and other human rights violations, Sudan has been designated a Country of Particular Concern by the U.S. State Department since 1999, and in April 2013, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended the country remain on the list. If you or your organization would like to help enable Morning Star News to continue raising awareness of persecuted Christians worldwide with original-content reporting, please consider collaborating at http://morningstarnews.org/donate/? ### © 2014 Morning Star News. Articles/photos may be reprinted with credit to Morning Star News. Morning Star News is a 501(c)(3) non-profit corporation that relies solely on contributions to offer original news reports of persecuted Christians. By providing reliable news on the suffering church, Morning Star News’ mission is to empower those in the free world to help and to encourage persecuted Christians that they are not forgotten or alone. For free subscription or to make tax-deductible donations, contact [email protected], or send check to Morning Star News, 24310 Moulton Parkway, Suite O # 157, Laguna Hills, CA 92637, USA.
Tl-Shabaab Kills 64 Non-Muslims in 11 Days
Back-to-Back Massacres Leave Scores of Christians Dead as Islamic Militants Retaliate Against Mombasa Mosque Raids 12/03/2014 Washington, D.C. International Christian Concern International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that 36 non-Muslims, a majority of whom were reported as having been professed Christians, were summarily executed by al-Shabaab militants in an early-morning massacre near Kenya's border with Somalia. Laborers at a construction site on the outskirts of Mandera (where al-Shabaab militants slaughtered 28 non-Muslims-including 19 Christians-on November 22), the men were attacked while sleeping at around 1:00 this morning. According to reports, some of the victims were shot through the head on site, while others were driven to the Somali border before being executed. Al-Shabaab ("the boys"), a radical Islamic insurgency with ties to al-Qaeda, has waged a campaign of terror against Kenya and other East African nations involved in the African Union mission (AMISOM) fighting the insurgency's dwindling control in Somalia. In claiming responsibility for this morning's attack, al-Shabaab has killed 64 non-Muslims in the last 11 days in retaliation for police raids of four mosques based in Kenya's port city of Mombasa last week. According to Voice of America, the consecutive attacks forced the resignation of Kenya's Cabinet Secretary of the Interior, Joseph Ole Lenku, and National Police Chief, David Kimaiyo. The resignations were announced by Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta during a televised speech on national security Tuesday. Today's attack follows the massacre of 28 non-Muslims, including 19 Christians, on November 22by al-Shabaab militants in Mandera, a Kenyan town on the border of Somalia. In that attack, militants commandeered a bus, forcing all passengers from the vehicle before separating Muslims from non-Muslims by having passengers either speak in Somali or recite an Islamic creed. Those who failed were boarded back onto the bus, driven a short distance, forced to disembark and then executed on the side of the road. Similar attacks have also been documented in Lamu County, a tourist destination on the predominantly Islamic Swahili Coast. During a recent tour of the coast, ICC staffers met with Christian survivors of multiple massacres of non-Muslims in and around Mpeketoni, including the slaughter of 13 men, the destruction of 10 houses and the burning to the ground of a local church on July 5 by armed Islamic militants. As in the above attacks, victims were asked to speak in Somali or recite from the Quran. If unable, they were either shot through the head at close range, or slowly beheaded with a panga, or East African machete. According to Kenyan defense forces (KDF), an air strike targeting an al-Shabaab base of operations in Somalia in response to the the November 22 massacre killed 45 militants. This is but one of several recent successful military offensives against al-Shabaab in recent months by AMISOM and its member nations. Al-Shabaab has lost significant ground in Somalia, including its control of the critical port city of Barawa; but, experts warn that following the death of the group's former emir, Ahmed Abdi Godane, in September, the insurgency has consolidated its internal leadership, shoring up once-widening divisions some speculated would result in group fractures. Cameron Thomas, ICC's Regional Manager for Africa, said, "Today, we mourn on behalf of the 36 families that lost loved ones in this morning's massacre. The security situation in Kenya continues to deteriorate, even as critical advances are made against al-Shabaab in their base country of Somalia. Christians across the Somali and coastal regions of Kenya are at risk of suffering the next lethal attack by Islamic extremists. While recently traveling the Kenyan coast, a colleague and I met with too many Christian widows and orphans left without food, shelter and peace of mind as result of these targeted attacks that, in a night, can decimate a community. More needs to be done to ensure the security of Kenya's Christians, and the global Church needs to be the first to step up and support those victimized at the hands of Islamic extremists and their pangas." For interviews, contact Cameron Thomas, Regional Manager for Africa: [email protected] # # # You are free to disseminate this news story. We request that you reference International Christian Concern (ICC) and include our web address, www.persecution.org. ICC is a Washington D.C.-based human rights organization that exists to help persecuted Christians worldwide. ICC provides Awareness, Advocacy, and Assistance to the worldwide persecuted Church. For additional information or for an interview, contact ICC at 800-422-5441. "It turns out you can give thanks for a lot of different folks on the Disney Channel website – but you can’t thank God.
I received a Facebook message on Sunday from Julie Anderson, of Angier, North Carolina, a town located about 30 miles from Raleigh. Julie was writing to tell me about her daughter, Lilly. Lilly celebrated her 10th birthday on Sunday. After church and a delicious lunch at the Golden Corral, the Andersons headed home – and Lilly made a beeline for the computer. Now, Lilly loves the Disney Channel – and as she was browsing the channel’s website she noticed a question. The Disney Channel wanted to know what she was thankful for. So Lilly typed in her answer. “God, my family, my church and my friends,” the 10-year-old wrote. Lilly pressed the return key and waited for her answer to appear on the website. But her response did not appear. Instead, a message written in red popped up on the screen. “Please be nice!” the message read. Lilly tried again and again with no luck – so she told her parents. “It was Lilly’s idea alone to include God in her post,” Julie told me. “As a matter of fact she was in another room from me and she came and got me when it wouldn’t allow her to post...'” Why Did Disney Block God? by Todd Starnes Fox News
"Boko Haram terrorists attacked the predominantly Christian town of Shani, Borno State on Saturday (Nov. 29). The death toll from the attack has not yet been confirmed but authorities believe that many were killed and thousands fled the town after militants invaded the area with guns and bombs..."
"'...They came on about 10 motorcycles from Gwaskara axis, well armed with Ak47 rifles, improvised explosive devices and petrol bombs, wrecking havoc without confrontation as there was no military operatives, nor police to assist the armless civilians who were running for dear lives...'"
"December began with more bloodshed and violence in Nigeria. "Police say suspected Boko Haram militants struck in Maiduguri (the capital of Borno state) and in Damuraturu (the capital of Yobe state). Five people were killed, and at least 32 people were injured in those attacks.
"A week ago, twin suicide bombings killed 78 people in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. It’s not your imagination that Boko Haram is much more active this year..." |
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