Persecution Watch: The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith & Persecution
Photo: William Warby, CC BY 2.0 modified by Voice of the Persecuted
11/28/2020 (Voice of the Persecuted) Dear Prayer Warriors, the Apostle Matthew wrote,
43 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ 44 But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 so that you may prove yourselves to be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46 For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Even the tax collectors, do they not do the same? 47 And if you greet only your brothers and sisters, what more are you doing than others? Even the Gentiles, do they not do the same? 48 Therefore you shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” Matthew 5:43:48
The Insanity of God: A True Story of Faith & Persecution movie shares stories of those who live and serve in the midst of persecution.
If you are interested RevelationMedia will send you a link to watch it now. Click here
- Please pray persecuted believers would know the hope God gives (Ephesians 1:18).
- Pray the Holy Spirit would strengthen them (Ephesians 3:16).
- Please pray persecuted believers would know how much God loves them (Ephesians 3:17)
- Pray they would know how to share the gospel (Ephesians 6:19).
- Please pray persecuted believers would fearlessly tell others about Jesus (Ephesians 6:20).
We will also continue to pray for:
- Leah Sharibu and Alice that they will be set free from Boko Haram captivity.
On Jul 08, 2020 · Leah Sharibu was kidnapped along with 109 other students on February 19, 2018 when Boko Haram attacked a boarding school in the city of Dapchi, Maiduguri Diocese, in north-eastern Nigeria. A month later, some of the girls died in captivity and all the others were released, except Leah.
- Pastor Wang Yi to be released from prison, for his family, the children, and the church in China
On December 28 the police raided the Early Rain Church and arrested Pastor Wang Yi, his wife Jiang Rong, and ten elders of the well-known 750-member church for holding “illegal” services. Some 100 believers were detained, questioned, and later released. Pastor Wang’s wife was also released. Pastor Wang remained in detention.
- For Anita, an Iranian Christian, persecuted by the Islamic regime.
- For the release of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from Iran, and his family as their persecution continues
Pastor Nadarkhani is serving the second year of his six-year sentence, recently reduced from ten years. Heconverted to Christianity at the age of 19 and leads a 400-member house church in Rasht, Iran. Since 2006, Iranian authorities have consistently harassed and detained Pastor Nadarkhani and his family. In 2010, the authorities sentenced him to death for apostasy before acquitting him in 2012. Pastor Nadarkhani was tried again in 2017 on false charges of “acting against national security” and promoting “Zionist Christianity,” for which he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. By July 2018, plainclothes agents raided Pastor Nadarkhani’s home to execute the sentence, beating and apprehending him and using a taser gun on one of his sons. He is now incarcerated at the notorious Evin prison near Tehran.
- For the harvest (Luke 10:2)
“2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
You are invited to pray with us on the prayer conference call, tonight!
In the love of Christ,
Nadia Dybvik, Persecution Watch Prayer Call Leader
Prayer Conference Call Details
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
From any location on your phone
Time:
9:00 PM Eastern
8:00 PM Central
7:00 PM Mountain
6:00 PM Pacific
Call in number: 712 775-7035
Access Code: 281207#
Recommended: For those who may be subject to added charges for conference calls. Please download the app, it’s free!
MOBILE APP: Free Conference Call HD also provides a quick and easy way for you to dial into conference calls without having to remember the dial-in credentials. Save all of your conference call dial-in numbers and access codes using this free app. With the Free Conference Call HD you can instantly dial into a conference call via 3G/4G data network and or regular mobile carrier. Google Play link or App Store – iTunes
What is Persecution Watch?
Persecution Watch is a U.S. national prayer conference call ministry that prays specifically for the global Persecuted Church. For over a decade, Blaine Scogin led this national network of believers who faithfully pray for the persecuted and the global harvest for the Kingdom of God.
The group meets via a free call-in service every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at 9pm Eastern (please check your time zone). Blaine also served as Prayer Director for Voice of the Persecuted and our missions became one. The prayer mission of Persecution Watch is an important part of our own.
With the passing of Blaine into glory on December 26, 2019, Voice of the Persecuted is committed to continue the prayer conference call for the persecuted along with our dedicated prayer warrior team.
On occasion, persecuted brothers and sisters have been invited on the call to share the trials they’re facing. The team serves to encourage them by washing their feet in Spirit led prayer.
Time is often reserved for those on the call to ask questions. We believe this helps to gain a better understanding of the situation that persecuted Christians endure in their specific nations. Q&A also helps us to focus our prayers based on their current needs.
Persecution Watch also hosts callers who want to pray united from other nations. If your heart is perplexed by the sufferings of our persecuted brothers and sisters, you no longer need to pray alone. We welcome all who desire to pray for the persecuted church and consider it a joy to pray together with you.
If you’re new to the call and can’t find your voice, listen in and pray silently or on mute. We are grateful and thank the Lord for bringing us all together to pray in agreement for our persecuted family in Christ. We can all be prayer warriors on this call!
NOTE: Persecution Watch has a new email address for the prayer team and those who would like to receive urgent prayer requests, weekly call prayer points and notification of special prayer events and special guest speakers.
Please fill out the form below to be included in our new distribution list to receive this important information. We are grateful for your prayers and to the Lord for guiding us as we continue the Persecution Watch prayer call mission.
Note to Voice of the Persecuted (VOP) readers: The Persecution Watch prayer team is also the prayer team of Voice of the Persecuted. SIGN UP today.
A Thanksgiving Message
(Voice of the Persecuted) Dear Prayer Warriors, every day is a day to be thankful for. All praise to the Great I Am, the King of all Kings. our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, our Merciful and loving Father.
On this Thanksgiving Day, I want you to know that I am so thankful for all of you, for the love you have for the Persecuted Church and for the Harvest. You have all been so faithful in serving united in the Spirit. I’ve been so blessed to pray with all of you.
We have grown united in our obedience to the call that the Lord has given to us. I’m so encouraged during our powerful prayer time together. I love you all so dearly and I am so grateful for you.
Thank you, my dear ones. God bless you all.
Tonight, we will not be hosting a prayer conference call. I encourage you to continue to keep our dear persecuted brothers and sisters in your heart that they may sense your prayers and love in the Spirit!
All People Exhorted to Praise God.
A Psalm for Thanksgiving.
Shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth. Serve the Lord with jubilation;
Come before Him with rejoicing. Know that the Lord Himself is God;
It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and
the sheep of His pasture. Enter His gates with thanksgiving,
And His courtyards with praise. Give thanks to Him, bless His name.
For the Lord is good; His mercy is everlasting
And His faithfulness is to all generations. Psalm 100:1-5
Have a Blessed Thanksgiving Day
In the love of Christ,
Nadia Dybvik Prayer Leader of Persecution Watch (PW)
A message from Voice of the Persecuted
Dear Brothers and Sisters, your prayers have an impact on persecuted Christians who know you are praying for them. They are filled with joy in the realization that they are remembered. Encouraged by your love and concern as you walk with them through your prayers, the Lord is using you to help boost their faith. These brothers and sisters thank God and pray for you as well.
I too would like to thank you for your dedication, for loving them as your family in Christ Jesus and for being a voice on their behalf.
Father God, I thank you for these precious saints that you have gathered to pray and sound the trumpet for those suffering for their faith in Christ. Please bless each member with, peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, self-control, discernment through the Holy Spirit and an abundance of your good gifts.
Lord suit them up in your armor. The belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, fit their feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, (the ‘Good News of salvation’ so that they can have supernatural peace), a shield of faith, helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is your word, Father.
Protect these dear ones and their families from the flaming arrows of the enemy and give them strength to run their race. In the name of Jesus, may You be glorified!
God bless you all and may every day be a day of Thanksgiving.
Lois Kanalos, Voice of the Persecuted (VOP)
Note: If you are not yet a part of this amazing prayer team, you can join today! Sign up here
Persecution Watch: Separating the Sheep from the Goats
11/24/2020 (Voice of the Persecuted) Dear Prayer Warriors, Matthew 25:31-46 shows us how Jesus the Shepherd will separate the sheep from the goats. What a glorious day that will be!
The question is who are the sheep and who are the goats?
Who are the blessed ones, who are the ones that will inherit the Kingdom?
It is written
31 “But when the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, then He will sit on His glorious throne. 32 And all the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, just as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats; 33 and He will put the sheep on His right, but the goats on the left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; 36 naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick, and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.’ 37 Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, and feed You, or thirsty, and give You something to drink? 38 And when did we see You as a stranger, and invite You in, or naked, and clothe You? 39 And when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you accursed people, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42 for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43 I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44 Then they themselves also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or as a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not [a]take care of You?’ 45 Then He will answer them, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for Me, either.’ 46 These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
Inspired by my pastor, I share the above with you. I believe that when we pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters, the King will answer saying, ‘Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of Mine, you did it for Me.’
Please Join us tonight in prayers for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Nigeria
Christian Leaders Urge Prayer for Nigeria’s Forgotten Victims
Tonight, we will continue to pray for:
~ Leah Sharibu and Alice that they will be set free from Boko Haram captivity.
On Jul 08, 2020 · Leah Sharibu was kidnapped along with 109 other students on February 19, 2018 when Boko Haram attacked a boarding school in the city of Dapchi, Maiduguri Diocese, in north-eastern Nigeria. A month later, some of the girls died in captivity and all the others were released, except Leah.
~ Pastor Wang Yi to be released from prison, for his family, the children, and the church in China. On December 28 the police raided the Early Rain Church and arrested Pastor Wang Yi, his wife Jiang Rong, and ten elders of the well-known 750-member church for holding “illegal” services. Some 100 believers were detained, questioned, and later released. Pastor Wang’s wife was also released. Pastor Wang remained in detention.
~ For Anita, an Iranian Christian, persecuted by the Islamic regime.
~ For the release of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from Iran, and his family as their Persecution continues. He is serving the second year of his six-year sentence, recently reduced from ten years.
~ Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani converted to Christianity at the age of 19 and leads a 400-member house church in Rasht, Iran. Since 2006, Iranian authorities have consistently harassed and detained Pastor Nadarkhani and his family. In 2010, the authorities sentenced him to death for apostasy before acquitting him in 2012. Pastor Nadarkhani was tried again in 2017 on false charges of “acting against national security” and promoting “Zionist Christianity,” for which he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. By July 2018, plainclothes agents raided Pastor Nadarkhani’s home to execute the sentence, beating and apprehending him and using a taser gun on one of his sons. He is now incarcerated at the notorious Evin prison near Tehran.
~ For the harvest
“2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
Luke 10:2
In Christ Love
Nadia and Merlaine Persecution Watch Prayer Call Moderators
Prayer Conference Call Details
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
From any location on your phone
Time:
9:00 PM Eastern
8:00 PM Central
7:00 PM Mountain
6:00 PM Pacific
Call in number: 712 775-7035
Access Code: 281207#
Recommended: For those who may be subject to added charges for conference calls. Please download the app, it’s free!
MOBILE APP: Free Conference Call HD also provides a quick and easy way for you to dial into conference calls without having to remember the dial-in credentials. Save all of your conference call dial-in numbers and access codes using this free app. With the Free Conference Call HD you can instantly dial into a conference call via 3G/4G data network and or regular mobile carrier. Google Play link or App Store – iTunes
What is Persecution Watch?
Persecution Watch is a U.S. national prayer conference call ministry that prays specifically for the global Persecuted Church. For over a decade, Blaine Scogin led this national network of believers who faithfully pray for the persecuted and the global harvest for the Kingdom of God.
The group meets via a free call-in service every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at 9pm Eastern (please check your time zone). Blaine also served as Prayer Director for Voice of the Persecuted and our missions became one. The prayer mission of Persecution Watch is an important part of our own.
With the passing of Blaine into glory on December 26, 2019, Voice of the Persecuted is committed to continue the prayer conference call for the persecuted along with our dedicated prayer warrior team.
On occasion, persecuted brothers and sisters have been invited on the call to share the trials they’re facing. The team serves to encourage them by washing their feet in Spirit led prayer.
Time is often reserved for those on the call to ask questions. We believe this helps to gain a better understanding of the situation that persecuted Christians endure in their specific nations. Q&A also helps us to focus our prayers based on their current needs.
Persecution Watch also hosts callers who want to pray united from other nations. If your heart is perplexed by the sufferings of our persecuted brothers and sisters, you no longer need to pray alone. We welcome all who desire to pray for the persecuted church and consider it a joy to pray together with you.
If you’re new to the call and can’t find your voice, listen in and pray silently or on mute. We are grateful and thank the Lord for bringing us all together to pray in agreement for our persecuted family in Christ. We can all be prayer warriors on this call!
NOTE: Persecution Watch has a new email address for the prayer team and those who would like to receive urgent prayer requests, weekly call prayer points and notification of special prayer events and special guest speakers.
Please fill out the form below to be included in our new distribution list to receive this important information. We are grateful for your prayers and to the Lord for guiding us as we continue the Persecution Watch prayer call mission.
Note to Voice of the Persecuted (VOP) readers: The Persecution Watch prayer team is also the prayer team of Voice of the Persecuted. SIGN UP today.
Christian Leaders Urge Prayer for Nigeria’s Forgotten Victims
Nigeria (Morning Star News) – Their pleas for government help falling on deaf ears, Christian leaders issued calls for prayer this month as Islamic extremist groups continued terrorizing northeast Nigeria.
In the wake of attacks and kidnappings by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram and its offshoot Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), leaders of the Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) called for the release of four members long held captive by Islamic extremists in the country’s northeast.
The Rev. Stephen Baba Panya, president of the ECWA, said church leaders are troubled at the lack of effort by the Nigerian government to free church members years after Islamic extremist groups took them captive. He called for prayer for high school student Leah Sharibu, two aid workers, university student Lillian Gyang and the 112 girls who remain captive of the 276 kidnapped from a high school in Chibok, Borno state in 2014.
“Please join faith with me, and let us pray standing on God’s promises in Matthew 18:18-19 that Boko Haram/ISWAP or any other Islamic terror group shall not determine the fate of God’s beloved daughters Leah Sharibu, Alice Loksha Ngaddah, Grace Lucas, and Lillian Gyang who are ECWA members, and also the remaining Chibok girls,” Pastor Panya said in a statement sent to Morning Star News.
Leah Sharibu, 15 years old when she was kidnapped by Boko Haram on Feb. 19, 2018 from the Government Girls’ Science and Technical College, in Dapchi, Yobe state, was one of 110 girls taken captive; the 109 Muslim girls were released while Leah remained captive when she refused to renounce her Christian faith.
Ngaddah, mother of two children and an aid worker with UNICEF, was abducted on March 1, 2018 in Rann, Borno state, when ISWAP militants attacked an Internally Displaced Persons camp where she was working. Her aged mother reportedly died of trauma soon after learning about the kidnapping.
Taku, a health worker with Action Against Hunger, was kidnapped by ISWAP militants on July 18, 2019, along the Damasak-Maiduguri highway in Borno state. She also was ministering to displaced people.
Lillian Daniel Gyang, a student at the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) in Borno state, was kidnapped on Jan. 9 by ISWAP while returning to school from the Christmas and New Year’s break from her native Plateau state.
ISWAP in 2016 broke off from Boko Haram, which attacked two predominantly Christian communities in Borno state earlier this month. The Boko Haram insurgents, who seek to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria, attacked Pulka and Gwoza towns soon after Christians had finished Sunday evening services on Nov. 8, residents said.
“The attacks on Pulka and Gwoza towns started at about 9 p.m. and lasted till around 11p.m.,” area resident Vanessa Muda told Morning Star News by text message. “The Boko Haram terrorists invaded our towns shooting indiscriminately on our people.”
Another area resident, Polycarp John, said the Boko Haram militants were heavily armed.
“They were repelled when personnel of the Nigerian army who were stationed here fought them and forced them to retreat from Gwoza and Pulka towns,” he told Morning Star News by text message. “Our towns have been under constant attacks from Boko Haram since 2014, and at a time, Gwoza town was made the headquarters of the Boko Haram caliphate until the Nigeria army retook the town from them in 2018.”
The attacks came on the heels of an appeal by leaders of the Church of the Brethren in Nigeria (EYN), for prayer for Christians in southern Borno state facing terror from both Boko Haram and ISWAP militants.
“It is harvest time, which is challenging in normal years, but in these past years includes the threat of Boko Haram destroying the crop or attacking people as they harvest,” the leaders wrote in a Nov. 6 email. “Pray for many vulnerable villages in southern Borno state and other areas far from military bases.”
Six Nigerians Convicted
Lela Gilbert, senior fellow for international religious freedom for the Family Research Council, stated in a recent report that in spite of frequent appeals from Nigerian church leaders across the denominational spectrum and international human rights advocates, violence is escalating.
“Many informed observers describe Nigeria’s political leadership as both incompetent and corrupt,” Gilbert noted. “But that’s only part of the problem. Not only are they almost entirely Muslim in their religious affiliation (while the country’s population is roughly half Christian), as previously noted, several governmental leaders – beginning with President Muhammadu Buhari – belong to the Fulani tribe, as do numerous military and police officials. This is seen as one of the major roadblocks to reform, particularly with regard to the Fulani jihadi massacres.”
In the United Arab Emirates, authorities were able to convict six Nigerians resident in the UAE for financing Boko Haram activities in Nigeria, according to press reports.
Surajo Abubakar Muhammad and Saleh Yusuf Adamu were sentenced to life imprisonment, while Ibrahim Ali Alhassan, Abdurahman Ado Musa, Bashir Ali Yusuf and Muhammad Ibrahim Isa each received 10-year prison sentences, according to Nigerian newspaper the Daily Trust.
An Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal convicted the six Islamists of providing Boko Haram with $782,000.
On Jan. 30 Christian Solidarity International (CSI) issued a genocide warning for Nigeria, calling on the Permanent Member of the United Nations Security Council to take action. CSI issued the call in response to “a rising tide of violence directed against Nigerian Christians and others classified as ‘infidels’ by Islamist militants in the country’s north and middle belt regions.’”
Nigeria ranked 12th on Open Doors’ 2020 World Watch List of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution but second in the number of Christians killed for their faith, behind Pakistan.
Islamic Extremists Behead 50 People in Brutal Attack on Villages in Mozambique
Graphic showing the Cabo Delgado province in Mozambique. (Image credit: CBN News)
(CBN) ISIS militants reportedly have murdered 50 people in a gruesome attack on several villages in the African coastal nation of Mozambique.
The victims were herded onto a soccer field in a northern village and then beheaded, according to eyewitness accounts reported by the state-owned Mozambique News Agency.
Local police also said scores of women and children were abducted in the attack and several homes were burned. Any villagers who tried to flee were captured and brutally murdered. The murders continued for almost three days.
“They burnt the houses then went after the population who had fled to the woods and started with their macabre actions,” Bernardino Rafael, the head of Mozambique’s police, told a press conference, according to The Times of London.
The militants shouted “Allahu Akbar” (“God is greatest”) while firing their weapons and setting homes on fire, according to media reports.
Fighting erupted in the Cabo Delgado province of the country in 2017 after an armed group with ties to ISIS began carrying out deadly attacks there.
The unrest has led to the deaths of more than 2,000 people and displaced more than 430,000 in the mainly Muslim province, according to the BBC.
Even though the area is rich in energy products, the people who live there have seen little of the reported $60 billion made from the province’s natural gas reserves. The extremists have used the ever-present poverty and unemployment to recruit young people in their quest to establish Islamic rule or a caliphate over the area.
Mozambique’s government has asked for help from other nations in trying to put down the revolt. The government says its military needs specialized training before confronting the militants, the BBC reported.
But human rights groups also warn that government security forces are also to blame for torture and killings while trying to restrain the militants’ activities in the province.
Dear Prayer Warriors, we are asking for you to join in sober, vigilant prayer on the conference call with us. Our persecuted brothers and sisters are desperate for our prayers.
Consider this,
7 The end of all things is near. Therefore be alert and of sober mind so that you may pray. 8 Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins. 9 Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its various forms. 1 Peter 4:7-10
We will lifting up the nation of Mozambique
Pray for Bob Fu
Dear Friends,
What do you think about when you hear about China? A pandemic? Trade wars? Political corruption?
When I think of China, I think of a vibrant and growing church that often faces severe persecution for their faith. I think of Christians who consider prison a “seminary of suffering.” I also think of my friend, Bob Fu, whom I have written about over the past few weeks.
Bob was a student leader during the Tiananmen Square Massacre. He and his wife were imprisoned for their faith, and eventually made their way to America where Bob started China Aid in support of religious freedoms in China.
Recently, a Chinese billionaire (living in New York City) made an “elimination list,” in which he named over 30 Chinese human right activists living in the USA, and stated that they should be killed. Bob Fu is at the top of his list.
Government authorities had to evacuate Bob, his wife Heidi, and their two daughters to a safe house as reports of a planned bombing at his house had surfaced. Even now, Bob and his family remain in an undisclosed location, and are unable to return to their home or their ministry office.
I spoke with Bob this week, and his spirits are high. He is no stranger to persecution. The death threats are real, and his family is under considerable stress. Heidi’s mother is so upset over her daughter’s safety that she has been hospitalized.
When I first wrote about this situation, I received many emails from our friends and supporters committing to pray for Bo Fu and his family. I also received emails questioning the motives of the Chinese billionaire calling for Bob’s death. His English name is Miles Kwok, and he is a self-proclaimed anti-communist activist. However, Kwok is actively using his money and influence to try to kill Bob and leading Chinese human rights activists.
“Bob needs our prayers and our support. The enemy is trying to silence one of the leading activists supporting our persecuted brothers and sisters in China.”
“There is no question,” Bob shared with me “Miles Kwok is working with the Chinese Communist government. This is the way the deception works. He accuses me of being a fake pastor and a Chinese spy, and says he is against communism. Only, the opposite is true.”
Bob needs our prayers and our support. The enemy is trying to silence one of the leading activists supporting our persecuted brothers and sisters in China. Recently, an estimated 200 pastors and church leaders gathered in Midland, TX (Bob’s hometown) to rally in support of Bob and his family.
Bob Fu is a close friend of my family, and a partner with RevelationMedia. He has helped us translate and distribute our content to China. Please remember him, his family, and his ministry in your prayers.
With all of the negative news surrounding China, it is easy to forget the plight of our brothers and sisters there. I encourage you not to let the enemy turn our attention away from China and its persecuted Christians. Together with them, we are just pilgrims in this land on our way to eternity with our King!
Steve Cleary
CEO/Founder
RevelationMedia
As those in the Body of Christ suffering persecution, we will also pray for:
Leah Sharibu and Alice that they will be set free from Boko Haram captivity.
On Jul 08, 2020 · Leah Sharibu was kidnapped along with 109 other students on February 19, 2018 when Boko Haram attacked a boarding school in the city of Dapchi, Maiduguri Diocese, in north-eastern Nigeria. A month later, some of the girls died in captivity and all the others were released, except Leah.
Pastor Wang Yi to be released from prison, for his family, the children, and the church in China.
On December 28 the police raided the Early Rain Church and arrested Pastor Wang Yi, his wife Jiang Rong, and ten elders of the well-known 750-member church for holding “illegal” services. Some 100 believers were detained, questioned, and later released. Pastor Wang’s wife was also released. Pastor Wang remained in detention.
Anita, an Iranian Christian, persecuted by the Islamic regime.
The release of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from Iran, and his family as their Persecution continues. He is serving the second year of his six-year sentence, recently reduced from ten years.
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani converted to Christianity at the age of 19 and leads a 400-member house church in Rasht, Iran. Since 2006,
Iranian authorities have consistently harassed and detained Pastor Nadarkhani and his family. In 2010, the authorities sentenced him to death for apostasy before acquitting him in 2012.
He was tried again in 2017 on false charges of “acting against national security” and promoting “Zionist Christianity,” for which he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. By July 2018, plainclothes agents raided his home to execute the sentence, beating and apprehending him and using a taser gun on one of his sons. He is now incarcerated at the notorious Evin prison near Tehran.
The harvest for the Kingdom of God.
“2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
His servant
Nadia Dybvik, Persecution Watch Prayer Leader
Prayer Conference Call Details
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
From any location on your phone
Time:
9:00 PM Eastern
8:00 PM Central
7:00 PM Mountain
6:00 PM Pacific
Call in number: 712 775-7035
Access Code: 281207#
Recommended: For those who may be subject to added charges for conference calls. Please download the app, it’s free!
MOBILE APP: Free Conference Call HD also provides a quick and easy way for you to dial into conference calls without having to remember the dial-in credentials. Save all of your conference call dial-in numbers and access codes using this free app. With the Free Conference Call HD you can instantly dial into a conference call via 3G/4G data network and or regular mobile carrier. Google Play link or App Store – iTunes
What is Persecution Watch?
Persecution Watch is a U.S. national prayer conference call ministry that prays specifically for the global Persecuted Church. For over a decade, Blaine Scogin led this national network of believers who faithfully pray for the persecuted and the global harvest for the Kingdom of God.
The group meets via a free call-in service every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at 9pm Eastern (please check your time zone). Blaine also served as Prayer Director for Voice of the Persecuted and our missions became one. The prayer mission of Persecution Watch is an important part of our own.
With the passing of Blaine into glory on December 26, 2019, Voice of the Persecuted is committed to continue the prayer conference call for the persecuted along with our dedicated prayer warrior team.
On occasion, persecuted brothers and sisters have been invited on the call to share the trials they’re facing. The team serves to encourage them by washing their feet in Spirit led prayer.
Time is often reserved for those on the call to ask questions. We believe this helps to gain a better understanding of the situation that persecuted Christians endure in their specific nations. Q&A also helps us to focus our prayers based on their current needs.
Persecution Watch also hosts callers who want to pray united from other nations. If your heart is perplexed by the sufferings of our persecuted brothers and sisters, you no longer need to pray alone. We welcome all who desire to pray for the persecuted church and consider it a joy to pray together with you.
If you’re new to the call and can’t find your voice, listen in and pray silently or on mute. We are grateful and thank the Lord for bringing us all together to pray in agreement for our persecuted family in Christ. We can all be prayer warriors on this call!
NOTE: Persecution Watch has a new email address for the prayer team and those who would like to receive urgent prayer requests, weekly call prayer points and notification of special prayer events and special guest speakers.
Please fill out the form below to be included in our new distribution list to receive this important information. We are grateful for your prayers and to the Lord for guiding us as we continue the Persecution Watch prayer call mission.
Note to Voice of the Persecuted (VOP) readers: The Persecution Watch prayer team is also the prayer team of Voice of the Persecuted. SIGN UP today.
Persecution Watch: Praying for Believers in Bangladesh
11/19/2020 (Voice of the Persecuted) Bangladesh: Population: 186 million, Christian 887,000
Christians who convert away from Islamic or tribal religions must gather in small house churches or secret groups due to fear of attack. Protestant and Catholic groups are targeted with attacks and death threats. Christians who belong to ethnic minority groups like the Rohingya are doubly vulnerable, as they are harassed because of both their religion and their ethnicity.
The government struggles to counter the growing strength of radical Islamic groups, adding to a general sense of insecurity. Until recently Bangladesh had managed to stay clear of the kind of radicalism that has plagued other parts of the world. That’s changing. Christians are a tiny minority and, if they belong to ethnic minorities, face a double vulnerability. Christian converts come under pressure from either radical Islamic groups or the Islamic culture in their neighborhoods and often face significant threats. Churches and all minority religions strive to stay clear of politics.
Converts from a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or an ethnic/tribal background suffer the most severe persecution in Bangladesh. Evangelistic churches, many of them Pentecostal, working among the Muslim majority face persecution, but even historical churches such as the Roman Catholic Church are increasingly faced with attacks and death threats.
Tribal Christians endure pressure on both ethnic and religious grounds, and struggle with land-grabbing issues and violence. Christians among the Muslim Rohingya, who fled to Bangladesh from Myanmar, face harassment and strong pressure from their community as well.
There have been no killings of Christians in the 2020 World Watch List (WWL) reporting period, but several death-threats were made against members of historical churches and converts alike. Fourteen churches—or places where Christians gather—were attacked. Several Christians were detained by the police in the WWL 2020 reporting period, many under the allegation of “unlawful conversion.”
Authorities fail to protect religious minorities, and indigenous populations. Women and girls face widespread violence and sexual assault without reliable protection or legal recourse. Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world.
· Pray for God to give strength to all believers to stand strong in their faith, especially secret believers, so they might endure persecution and not compromise their faith. Pray also for the ongoing projects to reach believers in need and assist them with timely help.
· Pray for Christians who have left their communities out of pressure to renounce their faith. Pray that the Lord would provide for their physical, emotional, and spiritual needs.
· Pray that Christians who are mentally and physically abused would be granted steadfast faith.
· Pray for more evangelistic outreaches and church planting.
· Pray for NGOs to provide much needed spiritual as well as material support.
· Pray to the Lord to stop child labor and protect young people from becoming sex workers as enormous poverty and rampant corruption create a living hell with no way out. ( Hundred of thousands, if not millions).
· Pray for converts from a Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or an ethnic/tribal background suffer the most severe persecution in Bangladesh. They often gather in small house churches or secret groups due to fear of attack. Pray their hearts are filled with courage and peace.
· Pray that Christian woman, girls and boys are safe from abduction, violence and sexual abuse. Pray girls are protected from forced underage marriages.
· Pray for more Bible translations. Official language is Bengali. There are 46 languages in Bangladesh but only 8 in scripture plus7 NT only.
· Pray for more oral Bible teaching teams as literacy is only about 40percent.
· Pray for more media ministry – internet, TWR broadcasts and increased Christian both in programming and air time.
· Pray that the Lord will do a miracle in growing His church in spite of the hostile climate towards Christianity.
Again, we want to lift up persecuted witnesses for the Lord and pray for: Leah Sharibu and Alice, prisoners of Boko Haram, pray that they will be set free. Pray pastor Wang Yi to be released from prison.
Pray for Anita, a Christian convert facing a long prison term who escaped and waiting for a visa to go to a country where she can express her faith openly.
You are invited to join us on Thursday, November 12 in a prayer call for the persecuted church.
Andy, Persecution Watch Prayer Call Moderator
Prayer Conference Call Details
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
From any location on your phone
Time:
9:00 PM Eastern
8:00 PM Central
7:00 PM Mountain
6:00 PM Pacific
Call in number: 712 775-7035
Access Code: 281207#
Recommended: For those who may be subject to added charges for conference calls. Please download the app, it’s free!
MOBILE APP: Free Conference Call HD also provides a quick and easy way for you to dial into conference calls without having to remember the dial-in credentials. Save all of your conference call dial-in numbers and access codes using this free app. With the Free Conference Call HD you can instantly dial into a conference call via 3G/4G data network and or regular mobile carrier. Google Play link or App Store – iTunes
What is Persecution Watch?
Persecution Watch is a U.S. national prayer conference call ministry that prays specifically for the global Persecuted Church. For over a decade, Blaine Scogin led this national network of believers who faithfully pray for the persecuted and the global harvest for the Kingdom of God.
The group meets via a free call-in service every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at 9pm Eastern (please check your time zone). Blaine also served as Prayer Director for Voice of the Persecuted and our missions became one. The prayer mission of Persecution Watch is an important part of our own.
With the passing of Blaine into glory on December 26, 2019, Voice of the Persecuted is committed to continue the prayer conference call for the persecuted along with our dedicated prayer warrior team.
On occasion, persecuted brothers and sisters have been invited on the call to share the trials they’re facing. The team serves to encourage them by washing their feet in Spirit led prayer.
Time is often reserved for those on the call to ask questions. We believe this helps to gain a better understanding of the situation that persecuted Christians endure in their specific nations. Q&A also helps us to focus our prayers based on their current needs.
Persecution Watch also hosts callers who want to pray united from other nations. If your heart is perplexed by the sufferings of our persecuted brothers and sisters, you no longer need to pray alone. We welcome all who desire to pray for the persecuted church and consider it a joy to pray together with you.
If you’re new to the call and can’t find your voice, listen in and pray silently or on mute. We are grateful and thank the Lord for bringing us all together to pray in agreement for our persecuted family in Christ. We can all be prayer warriors on this call!
NOTE: Persecution Watch has a new email address for the prayer team and those who would like to receive urgent prayer requests, weekly call prayer points and notification of special prayer events and special guest speakers.
Please fill out the form below to be included in our new distribution list to receive this important information. We are grateful for your prayers and to the Lord for guiding us as we continue the Persecution Watch prayer call mission.
Note to Voice of the Persecuted (VOP) readers: The Persecution Watch prayer team is also the prayer team of Voice of the Persecuted. SIGN UP today.
Persecution Watch: Pastor Leads His Church to Pray for Persecuted Christians
11-17-2020 (Voice of the Persecuted) It is a joy to learn of a Pastor who has recognized the critical need to lead his church in praying for the wounded members of the Body of Christ. The persecuted praise our God when they hear believers care enough to remember and pray for them.
Imagine you are running a long, tiresome marathon growing weaker with each step. You begin to doubt if you will even make it to the finish line. But then you hear the spectators cheering you on, “Keep going, you can do this!” Some rush in to give you a drink and a cold cloth to cool you down. Your resolve to continue strengthens. Their care and motivation causes you to quicken your steps. The distance seemed shortened as you break through the tape and win the race!
It is much the same when we pray for those suffering for Christ. God blesses uses us to bless them with each one of our prayers, act of love and care. He whispers to them, I’m with you, you are almost there, keep going! They continue running the race and they praise Him. In this, we rejoice and praise God with them and He is glorified.
Watch Pastor Luke engage with his church and encourage them to pray for the persecuted. Pray for him and all pastors who are leading the Body to pray for the persecuted. In the name of Jesus, may the Lord strengthen them and expand their territory.
Please pray more pastors would be encouraged to do the same.
Lois Kanalos, Founder of Voice of the Persecuted
https://youtu.be/GWnPkEsdAig
Dear Prayer Warriors, we welcome you to come as the Lord leads us to pray for ….
Those in the Body of Christ suffering persecution
Leah Sharibu and Alice that they will be set free from Boko Haram captivity.
On Jul 08, 2020 · Leah Sharibu was kidnapped along with 109 other students on February 19, 2018 when Boko Haram attacked a boarding school in the city of Dapchi, Maiduguri Diocese, in north-eastern Nigeria. A month later, some of the girls died in captivity and all the others were released, except Leah.
Pastor Wang Yi to be released from prison, for his family, the children, and the church in China.
On December 28 the police raided the Early Rain Church and arrested Pastor Wang Yi, his wife Jiang Rong, and ten elders of the well-known 750-member church for holding “illegal” services. Some 100 believers were detained, questioned, and later released. Pastor Wang’s wife was also released. Pastor Wang remained in detention.
Anita, an Iranian Christian, persecuted by the Islamic regime.
The release of Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani from Iran, and his family as their Persecution continues. He is serving the second year of his six-year sentence, recently reduced from ten years.
Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani converted to Christianity at the age of 19 and leads a 400-member house church in Rasht, Iran. Since 2006,
Iranian authorities have consistently harassed and detained Pastor Nadarkhani and his family. In 2010, the authorities sentenced him to death for apostasy before acquitting him in 2012.
He was tried again in 2017 on false charges of “acting against national security” and promoting “Zionist Christianity,” for which he was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment. By July 2018, plainclothes agents raided his home to execute the sentence, beating and apprehending him and using a taser gun on one of his sons. He is now incarcerated at the notorious Evin prison near Tehran.
The harvest for the Kingdom of God.
“2 And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
In Christ’s Love,
Nadia and Merlaine Persecution Watch Prayer Call Moderators
Prayer Conference Call Details
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
From any location on your phone
Time:
9:00 PM Eastern
8:00 PM Central
7:00 PM Mountain
6:00 PM Pacific
Call in number: 712 775-7035
Access Code: 281207#
Recommended: For those who may be subject to added charges for conference calls. Please download the app, it’s free!
MOBILE APP: Free Conference Call HD also provides a quick and easy way for you to dial into conference calls without having to remember the dial-in credentials. Save all of your conference call dial-in numbers and access codes using this free app. With the Free Conference Call HD you can instantly dial into a conference call via 3G/4G data network and or regular mobile carrier. Google Play link or App Store – iTunes
What is Persecution Watch?
Persecution Watch is a U.S. national prayer conference call ministry that prays specifically for the global Persecuted Church. For over a decade, Blaine Scogin led this national network of believers who faithfully pray for the persecuted and the global harvest for the Kingdom of God.
The group meets via a free call-in service every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday night at 9pm Eastern (please check your time zone). Blaine also served as Prayer Director for Voice of the Persecuted and our missions became one. The prayer mission of Persecution Watch is an important part of our own.
With the passing of Blaine into glory on December 26, 2019, Voice of the Persecuted is committed to continue the prayer conference call for the persecuted along with our dedicated prayer warrior team.
On occasion, persecuted brothers and sisters have been invited on the call to share the trials they’re facing. The team serves to encourage them by washing their feet in Spirit led prayer.
Time is often reserved for those on the call to ask questions. We believe this helps to gain a better understanding of the situation that persecuted Christians endure in their specific nations. Q&A also helps us to focus our prayers based on their current needs.
Persecution Watch also hosts callers who want to pray united from other nations. If your heart is perplexed by the sufferings of our persecuted brothers and sisters, you no longer need to pray alone. We welcome all who desire to pray for the persecuted church and consider it a joy to pray together with you.
If you’re new to the call and can’t find your voice, listen in and pray silently or on mute. We are grateful and thank the Lord for bringing us all together to pray in agreement for our persecuted family in Christ. We can all be prayer warriors on this call!
NOTE: Persecution Watch has a new email address for the prayer team and those who would like to receive urgent prayer requests, weekly call prayer points and notification of special prayer events and special guest speakers.
Please fill out the form below to be included in our new distribution list to receive this important information. We are grateful for your prayers and to the Lord for guiding us as we continue the Persecution Watch prayer call mission.
Note to Voice of the Persecuted (VOP) readers: The Persecution Watch prayer team is also the prayer team of Voice of the Persecuted. SIGN UP today.
Abraham Lincoln: Request for our Divided and Suffering Country
From a former atheist to a man who yearned to walk in the footsteps of Christ, on March 30, 1863, a weary President Lincoln issued Proclamation 97 for the “Day of National Humiliation, Fasting, and Prayer”.
“Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation.
It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord.
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But We Have Forgotten God.
We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own.
Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us. It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sin, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.
Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.
All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace.”
Sound familiar? There’s nothing new under the sun. Once again, our nation is in a polarized situation divided much like it was when this proclamation was declared. Contrary to modern belief, today’s lack of unity didn’t happen within a span of a few years. Many have been watching it develop over decades.
Ephesians 6:12, NASB: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
What do you believe is behind all the chaos and divisions taking place around the world? Those dark forces are likely salivating over what seems to be a great accomplishment.
Brothers and Sisters stop listening to the talking heads. Turn away from arguments which often make those who engage look like fools, arrogant and cold-hearted. Turn off what stirs up anger, frustration and fear. Click here for related Bible verses
It may be hard when our emotions cause an impulse to react, but instead, sit back for a moment, look up, and focus on our Almighty God. He will give you strength. For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:7
It will take a miracle to heal what has been broken. We need more than public policy, stimulus checks, vaccines, or mere mortals to turn this around. Unlike Lincoln, we have few leaders with his wisdom to humble themselves before God. But what will the Body of Christ do?
There are multitudes around the world, including the persecuted, who are on their knees praying and asking God to intervene in the USA. As our nation needed so long ago, we too need to seek the Lord, today. Will you also join in prayer in the name of Jesus for this nation?
Come with a humbled heart, repentance and give praises to the Lord. Pray for a peace that surpasses understanding, for wisdom and truth. Pray also that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and dignity. God’s power, mercy, and love has not, nor will ever change. We trust He hears our prayers. He has healed divides in the past. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations. Psalm 100:5
Pray brothers and sisters, pray America!
VOICE OF THE PERSECUTED 