Each year there are several organizations that call us to pray for the persecuted church. The date this year is this Sunday, November 14.  It may be hard for us Americans to realize the amount of persecution of Christians that is going on in our world. I quote from information given by International Christian Concern: “In this past century alone, more Christians were murdered for their faith than any other century in human history, an estimated 200 million. Around the world, believers are economically marginalized, denied education for their children, beaten, tortured, raped, imprisoned and even murdered for their faith.” 

            We are so blessed!  God has given us a great nation and we have experienced freedom to worship and serve God without any soldiers or police telling us we can’t. In 2005, Jamaa Bakrim was tried and found guilty in a Moroccan court of “proselytization.” He had become a threat to Moroccan authorities by refusing to stay silent about his faith. As a result, he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. 

            Two Christian girls from Iran were arrested for “anti-government activities” in March 2009.  Their crime however, was conversion from Islam to Christianity. They were locked in cramped cells among hundreds of political protesters in a notorious prison. They would not recant and after eight months they were released. They said: “..no doubt God heard the prayers of His people. 

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

Pastor Mark