Barnabas Fund - International Headquarters River Street, Pewsey, Wilthire. Phone: +44 1672 565030 Latitude: 51 deg 23 min 18 sec N Longitude: 1 deg 45 min 48 sec W .
Home
News
Archives
Lent Prayer - Indonesia

Email:

Lent Prayer - Indonesia

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
 refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

Published: 00:01 GMT Standard Time - Thursday 08 March 2012

Lent Prayer - Indonesia

Project(s): 22-828, 22-1017

Country/Region: South and East Asia, Indonesia

On Sunday 25 September 2011 a suicide bomber detonated explosives at a church in Solo, Central Java, as the Christians were leaving the building, and 28 people were injured. The bombing may have been a response to clashes earlier that month in Ambon, sparked by false rumours among Muslims in the area that Christians had killed a Muslim taxi driver.

indonesia-4x3.jpg
The church-planting ministry
of this Indonesian couple
is sponsored by Barnabas Fund

Islamist groups who want to eliminate Christianity from Indonesia and bring the whole country under the rule of sharia have been waging an often violent campaign against Christians and churches in recent years. More than 50 churches have also been shut down or demolished by the authorities since the start of 2010, often after protests from radical Muslim groups.

The authorities have encouraged Muslims to migrate into Christian-majority areas; once they outnumber the Christians, they can press for the imposition of sharia. Various Muslim-majority provinces have enacted sharia regulations, and some of these apply to Christians as well as Muslims. The churches are also burdened with restrictions on evangelism, the construction of buildings and involvement in public life.

A church in Jalan Abdullah bin Nuh street, Bogor, West Java, had its building permit revoked in 2008, and the local mayor refused to comply with a Supreme Court order of 2010 that the church be re-opened, saying that churches should not be built on streets with Islamic names. The congregation had been holding its services on the street, but in November 2011 security forces and Islamists blocked all access roads to the church to prevent them from gathering. The Christians were forced to meet in the home of a church member.

Pray that Indonesia’s Christians may have wisdom and courage as they serve Christ in the face of violence and restrictions. Pray that the government will uphold religious freedom and take firm action against local authorities and Islamist groups that threaten the property and safety of Christians or that want to make Indonesia into an Islamic state. Ask that the churches that have been attacked will be able to resume their worship in peace. Pray too that the church in Bogor will be allowed to re-open. More Muslims live in Indonesia than in any other country; pray that they will not seek to impose sharia on the Christian minority.

Barnabas Fund projects include:

  • Church planters (Ref. 22-828)
  • Prayer ministry (Ref. 22-1017)

This article is taken from

“Praying for the Persecuted Church in Lent 2012” -  Download .

Help us: Share this article

Email:

Lent Prayer - Indonesia

To

Email address:
Separate multiple addresses with a comma (,). Maximum of 10

From

Your name:
Your email address:
Security test:
Please enter the numbers that appear here in the box below.
 refresh captcha
CAPTCHA Image
Security code:

Details provided here will never be used in any other context

christian, persecution, charity, church, persecuted, sookhdeo, Islam

Follow Barnabas

or

receive news & appeal emails as they are published

From Twitter

From Twitter_icon
Read more...

Daily prayer

Daily prayer_icon

  • The Sudanese authorities have intensified their crackdown on Christian activities by targeting Christian-run schools. Two of these in the capital, Khartoum, have been ordered to close. One is a primary school that the authorities discovered was not teaching Islamic studies or separating boys and girls. The other provided English-language lessons for 500 adults; three of its staff had been arrested and interrogated over suspicions that they were evangelising Muslims. Pray that Christian work and witness in Sudan will continue despite the increasingly crippling restrictions being imposed upon them, and that the Gospel will spread there. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed 5 hours ago

  • An upsurge of arrests and deportations of Christians in Sudan has further unsettled the country’s vulnerable Christian minority. In January three Christians of South Sudanese origin were detained and then ordered to leave the country because of their involvement with churches and a Christian radio station. The following month a group of at least 55 Christians were detained without charge, falsely accused of receiving money from foreign countries. Dozens of expatriate Christians have also been deported. Pray that this frequent and severe harassment will stop, and that the churches of Sudan will be allowed to worship and serve the Lord in peace. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Sat, May 2013 00:00

  • “We have reached here with the help of God. We shall live well with God’s help in our land.” A Christian woman gave thanks as she arrived in South Sudan after escaping from discrimination and oppression in Muslim-majority Sudan, thanks to the Exodus project sponsored by Barnabas Fund. Give thanks to the Lord that more than 3,500 Christians have already reached the safety of the Christian-majority South by plane and bus. Pray for His blessing upon them as they settle into their new lives, and pray too that others will be able to join them soon. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Fri, May 2013 00:00

  • Pray for 14 Christians in Nghe An, Vietnam, who were sentenced in January to between three and 13 years in prison on charges of subversion against the state. Their lawyers complained that the Christians had been subjected to torture, including sleep deprivation, and coerced into confessing crimes that they had not committed. Some of them had apparently been detained by police at random, some at a church service. During the two-day trial, thousands of Christians staged a protest against the arbitrary and illegal arrest of innocent people. Pray that the sentences will be revoked and the Christians released, and that the authorities will stop harassing and bullying the Christian community. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Thu, May 2013 00:00

  • “The decree is intended to provide the tools to end the house-church movement entirely.” Nguyen Van Dai, a Christian lawyer in Vietnam, added his voice to a chorus of concern among church leaders about Decree 92, which provides new guidelines for regulating religious practice in the country. The decree imposes harsh and complex new criteria that churches must fulfil if they are to obtain legal status; these will make it almost impossible for unregistered groups such as house churches (which have not been recognised by the government since 1975) to do so. Even if a congregation manages to fulfil all the conditions, the minimum period it will have to wait for recognition is 23 years. Pray that the churches in Vietnam will withstand this attempt to stifle their witness and will not only survive but thrive. Subscribe to the prayer points rss feed Wed, May 2013 00:00

Read more...

Quick navigation

© Barnabas Fund 1997 - 2013 All rights reserved.
Barnabas Fund & Barnabas Aid are registered trade marks