Satellite images show Nigerian town ‘wiped off the map’
“The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned of a growing humanitarian crisis in Nigeria and neighbouring Niger as tens of thousands of refugees flee deadly Boko Haram attacks.
It is still not known how many people died in last week’s suspected massacre in Baga, a town on the shores of Lake Chad in north-east Nigeria, however some reports suggested thousands of people may have been killed…”
– Report from ABC News.
Related: 9 Things You Should Know about Boko Haram (h/t Tim Challies.)
Egypt’s President first ever to attend Coptic Christmas mass
“In a historic event that set Cairo ablaze, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi made an unannounced appearance at the Coptic Cathedral where Christmas Eve Mass was being celebrated by the Egyptian Pope Tawadros II.
The Coptic Church celebrates Christmas on 7 January because of its use of the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian. It was the first time ever that an Egyptian President was honoring a Coptic Christmas celebration with his presence…”
– Interesting developments in Egypt.
More than 120 people killed in Taliban attack on Pakistan school
“At least 126 people have been killed and 122 injured in an attack by Taliban militants on a Pakistani high school.”
– ABC News report on the attack in Peshawar.
Time magazine names Ebola fighters as ‘person of the year’
“Time magazine has named the medics treating the Ebola epidemic as its “person of the year” for 2014, paying tribute to their courage and mercy…”
– Report from ABC News. Photo: Samaritans Purse.
Related: Are Christian Missionaries Narcissistic Idiots?, Albert Mohler (07 August 2014.)
Tribute to Sir Fred Catherwood
“Sir Fred Catherwood, eminent British industrialist and politician, died peacefully on Sunday 30 November at the age of 89. Sir Fred gave more than 45 years of faithful service to IFES.
Married to Elizabeth – daughter of pastor and theologian Dr Martyn Lloyd-Jones who helped found IFES – Sir Fred held senior offices in both IFES and UCCF Great Britain from 1961 to 2007…”
– Penny Vinden has a fitting tribute to Sir Fred Catherwood on the IFES website. His funeral was on Friday in Cardiff.
Asia Bibi: no release without international pressure, lawyer says
“The human-rights lawyer who is risking his life by defending Asia Bibi has denounced the blasphemy law under which she has been sentenced to death as a ‘tool of oppression’.
Her lawyer, Naeem Shakir, told an audience at Westminster Abbey on Saturday that the international community must put pressure on the Pakistani authorities to reform the law…”
– Story from Church Times.
Related: Barnabas Fund campaign “Save Aasia Bibi: Don’t let her die”.
Aasia Bibi files appeal in Pakistan’s top Court
“The Christian mother of five children, sentenced to death for “blasphemy” in Pakistan, has filed an appeal to the country’s top court on 24 November. After the High Court in Lahore upheld Aasia Bibi’s conviction on 16 October, this appeal is her last recourse in the Pakistani judicial system…”
– Barnabas Fund has the latest for your prayers.
47 killed at Christian school, while Christians forced to flee captured city
“A suicide bomb attack in a Christian secondary school in … north-eastern Nigeria, has killed at least 47 people on Monday (10 November) as the students gathered for morning assembly. …
In a separate incident, trapped residents from the predominantly Christian city of Mubi in Adamawa state report that Christians have been tortured and killed after the Islamist group Boko Haram took control of the town on 29 October.”
– Barnabas Fund has this report in attacks on Christians in NE Nigeria.
Pakistani Christian couple tortured and burned to death
“A Pakistani mob beat to near-death a Christian and his pregnant wife for her alleged ‘blasphemy’, then threw them both into the large kiln where they both worked as bonded laborers. The incident happened on Tuesday 3rd Nov, some 60 kilometers from Lahore…”
– from World Watch Monitor.
Barnabas Fund urges intercession for Pakistani Christian sentenced to death
“Barnabas Fund has today received the sad news that the appeal made by Pakistani Christian mother Aasia Bibi against her conviction under Pakistan’s “blasphemy law” has been rejected and the death sentence she was given confirmed. …”
– Read at Barnabas Fund, including suggestions for how you can write on her behalf. (Report on the UK’s Premier Christian Radio.)
Good News for Persian speakers
“A major new translation of the whole Bible into modern Persian was launched in London and Istanbul last week (September 22-24). The project was especially significant as some of its earliest contributors were martyred for their faith.
Its publishers are Elam Ministries and Wycliffe Bible Translators. Elam was founded in 1990 by senior Iranian church leaders with a vision to serve the growing church in the Iran…”
– from Bible Society Australia.
IVCF ‘re-creating campus ministry’
“The California State University (CSU) system has issued a nondiscrimination policy that requires InterVarsity to allow non-Christians to be chapter leaders. InterVarsity has always required chapter leaders to agree to our Doctrinal Basis, a summary of basic, historic Christian beliefs.
While InterVarsity invites and welcomes all students as participants, we believe a Christian group should have the right to expect and even require their leaders to be Christian – just as any student group, club or Greek organization should be able to require their leaders to be like-minded…”
– press release from InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.
Related: When Your Campus Ministry Is “Derecognized” – Desiring God.
Kent Brantly’s remarks upon his release from hospital
“I prayed that God would help me be faithful even in my illness and that in my life, even in my death, he would be glorified.”
– Samaritan’s Purse Dr.Kent Brantly spoke as he was discharged from hospital after recovering from Ebola. See the video at Denny Burk’s website (h/t Tim Challies). Photo: Samaritan’s Purse.
South Sudanese church leaders: ‘The West has forgotten us’
“Church leaders in South Sudan said yesterday that the world has turned its back on the war-torn nation and little is being done to help the millions in desperate need of humanitarian aid.
Representatives from the Africa Inland Church, Episcopal Church of Sudan, Presbyterian Church of East Africa and the Pentecostal Church in South Sudan met in London yesterday to launch an appeal in partnership with the Barnabas Fund, urging the West to support their efforts in rebuilding peace…”
– Story from Christian Today. (h/t Anglican Mainstream.) Photo: Barnabas Fund.
See also Barnabas Fund, and
The Archbishop of Sydney’s Anglican Aid South Sudan appeal – and donation page.
Archbishop of Sydney calls for ‘urgent prayer and sacrificial generosity’
Archbishop of Sydney Glenn Davies has called for “urgent prayer and sacrificial generosity” in response to two great humanitarian crises.
Here are the Anglican Aid links:
Iraq appeal info –Donation page
South Sudan appeal info – Donation page
Archbishop Davies writes:
“I am calling on all Sydney Anglicans and our friends across Australia representing many Christian traditions and denominations to urgent prayer and sacrificial generosity for two terrifying humanitarian crises unfolding in our world today. Read more
What we believe
The message at the heart of Christianity is really quite simple…