Afghanistan, Iran: suffering but growing church
We praise God that hundreds of new Iranian and Afghan believers have been baptised in recent months in cities across the region. In Iran, these include teenagers who were deeply impacted recently by an Elam youth discipleship conference. The baptisms have been occasions of great joy and celebration, often lasting from morning to evening. Over 100 more new believers will be baptised soon at a service in Afghanistan. Please pray that all these new believers will grow in love and knowledge of Christ, and that God will protect them and give them wisdom as they witness to family and friends.
USA / Philippines: online sex offending
This month a US court sentenced Anthony Schultz to 84 years in prison for filming rape and sharing the abuse online. The case dated back to 2016, when he was arrested for multiple counts of child pornography he created in the Philippines. US-based FBI investigators discovered Schultz would film himself abusing children and then sell the materials online. He also convinced a Filipino mother to sexually abuse her own daughter and sell the videos to him. Throughout 2017 the International Justice Mission (IJM) supported Philippine authorities as they used this intelligence to rescue three girls aged 10, 15 and 17 from Schultz’s videos. While we can praise and thank God for the success of this investigation, please pray for the release of thousands of other children in similar circumstances across the nations. Pray for the work of IJM as they work to end slavery in our lifetime.
China: Ten Commandments replaced
A believer says the Chinese government doesn’t want Christians to know the Ten Commandments, which have been removed from nearly every state church and meeting venue and replaced with quotations from a 2015 speech by Xi Jinping. The government said that the core socialist values and Chinese culture will swallow religions of China and support religious communities to re-interpret religious thought, doctrines, and teachings in a way that conforms to the progress of the times. This means resolutely guarding against the infiltration of Western ideology, and consciously resisting the influence of extremist thought. Some churches have been closed for not replacing the Ten Commandments with the President’s quotes. Others have been threatened with blacklisting, which means that travel, schooling, and their children’s future employment will be impeded if they refuse to overhaul their church's teaching. A pastor said, ‘The Communist Party’s ultimate goal is to become God’.
Israel: Judaism’s place in politics
Religious Jewish parties won nearly 20% of the vote in the national election on 17 September. Previously, those parties have united with the conservative Likud party to form a governing coalition. But now the religious-nationalist bloc fell short of a majority in the Knesset, winning only 56 of the 120 seats. Seven decades after Israel’s founding, the debate over Judaism’s place in public life rages on. Israeli political battle lines often fracture along balancing Jewish religion and liberal democracy. These tensions were a central issue in the election, and will influence the composition of Israel’s next government.
