Istanbul gives Syriac Christians Cemetery

Syriacs call it a ploy to pit Christian communities against each other.

Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, once a Catholic Cathedral (Wikimedia.org)

  

By Barbara G. Baker

ISTANBUL, Dec. 17 (World Watch Monitor) —Three years after a Syrian Orthodox foundation applied to build a church in Istanbul, the Greater Istanbul Municipality has granted them a large plot of land and a building permit.

Banner headlines in the Turkish media praised the early-December decision as “a first in the history of the Republic,” declaring that never before had Turkey allowed a non-Muslim minority to build an official new house of worship.

Still, Syriac Christians were far from pleased. For one thing, the land they were “granted” by the municipality is, in fact, a Latin Catholic cemetery.

“We don’t want a Syriac church on top of a cemetery!” the website suryaniler.com stated. “This is a big scandal.”

In fact, the graveyard had been donated back in 1868 to the Italian Catholic Church in what is now Istanbul’s Yesilkoy district. It was then officially registered as Catholic property in 1936, although later confiscated in 1951 by the city.

The Council of Europe’s 2011 progress report noted that Turkey was not fully implementing Law No. 3998, which states that cemeteries belonging to minority communities can no longer be taken over by local municipalities.

According to lawyer Nail Karakas, the Latin Catholic foundation had applied to the city last summer, in accordance with the government’s August 2011 pledge to restore expropriated minority properties, to regain possession of their property and resume Christian burials in the graveyard.

So Syriac leaders are insisting that the cemetery land newly designated for their church be returned instead to its rightful owners.

“It is clear that (the authorities) want to cause conflict between the minority communities,” commented Syriac layman Sabo Boyaci. Boyaci also faulted the government for trying to exploit the Syriac community politically.

“I don’t believe the government’s sincerity. They delivered this land to us in order to silence us on the matter of Mor Gabriel Monastery. The government simply aims to make a good impression on the European and Turkish public,” he told Hurriyet Daily News.

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Copyright 2012 World Watch Monitor

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Have a BLESSED CHRISTMAS! And remember you can affect the Wide World by your Prayer, for Nothing is impossible to God. Nothing, if only you'll pray....

Bill Hunt     

   

NIGERIA: Nine Christians killed, Four Churches burned

Christmas Love? Pray for the 100 Million's Persecuted and Abused around the World. What if it were you? 

Messiah Came! the Reason for the Season (by Bill Hunt)

Lagos, Nigeria, Dec. 4 (Open Doors News) — Nine Christians were killed and four Churches burned in two separate Dec. 1 attacks in northeast Nigeria by gunmen suspected to be members of the Boko Haram Islamist group.

The Christians and a Muslim were killed in Kwaple village, Chibok Local Government Area of Borno state when the Islamic group members went on rampage and burned 20 houses and a Church in the area, while three Churches were burned in Gamboru Ngala.

“I have just received a message from my people at Chibok and Gamboru Ngala that four of our Churches were attacked by the militants this morning and 10 people killed at Kwaple in Chibok LGA,” 

--the Borno State Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Rev. Titus Pona, said in a text message to the association’s president on Dec. 2.

Nuhu Clark, a former Chibok local government area council chairman, said the attackers entered the village at about 9 p.m. Saturday, then torched houses before using guns and machetes to kill their victims.

“Most of the victims were buried today,” Clark said on Sunday. “It is unfortunate that such could happen in such a peaceful village.”

According to Pona, the attackers burned The Church of the Brethren, Church of Christ in Nigeria, and Deeper Life Church Gamboru Ngala, and another Church of the Brethren in Chibok.

“It is clearly an attack on Christians by the Boko Haram members in a local government that that is predominantly Christian,” said a Christian leader in the region, who requested anonymity because churches had agreed that only the Christian Association of Nigeria chairman would speak to the press.

“The government is worried about the implication of this attack and is offering to support the rebuilding of the affected Churches.”

The State governor met Monday with state and local officials of the Christian association, the local government area council, and community leaders. They determined how to support the affected families.

“The affected families will be compensated, though life cannot be paid for,” said the anonymous Christian leader.

“The attack by members of the Islamic group, who are apparently not from the community, was unjustified and we have the assurance of the government that necessary measures will be taken to prevent a reoccurrence.”

Sunday Oibe, spokesman for the northern group of the Christian Association of Nigeria, decried the continued attacks on Christians, which he said were not getting enough attention from the government.

 “What people get to hear is just a fraction of the attacks Christians are subjected to,” Oibe said. “It is unfortunate that when the (Christian Association of Nigeria) president comments on the issue, they accuse him of not being sensitive or raising false alarm. We cannot continue to keep quiet in the face of provocative attacks like last Saturday’s attack in Borno.”

Borno State is the headquarters of the Boko Haram group that has launched various terrorist attacks in the country, killing hundreds.

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Copyright 2012 Open Doors News
Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.
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Pray for the World this Christmas.... 
Bill Hunt

   

SYRIA, Orthodox Priest Brutally Murdered

Urgently pray for the People and Peace to the War in Syria. So many have suffered so dearly.

Past Pro-Hamas Rally in Damascus (www.wikimedia.org)

DAMASCUS, Syria, 29 Nov, 2012 (Open Doors News) — Syria appears to be heading towards deepening breakdown, with sectarian fragmentation likened to its neighbor, Lebanon’s civil war. Inevitably, Christians have been caught up in the chaos over the past months, as we report here - starting with a Syrian Orthodox priest who was deliberately killed. 

In an act of courage 43 year old Father Fadi Haddad set off by car to negotiate the release of one of his parishioners, who had been kidnapped. A week later, it became clear that the parish priest from Qatana, some 20 kilometers south-west of Damascus, had paid the highest price. On Oct. 25th, his lifeless and mutilated body was found on the side of a road. Qatana had been terrorized by radical fighters.

Locals told Catholic Charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). “‘Extremists went through the streets shouting ‘Alawites to the grave, Christians to Beirut’. They want to kick us out”.

A pastor who often provided Haddad with Bibles and who met him a few days before he was kidnapped told us, "Father Fadi’s superiors had asked him why he kept traveling back and forth between Qatana and Damascus.

"‘I cannot not serve Jesus; I need to help people, that is why I have to move around,’ he responded." 

Christians in Syria say the particularly gruesome death of Father Fadi - his eyes had been gouged out - marks a turning point for them. Before, Christians were caught up in the war in the same way as Kurds, Druze, and all other ethnic groups. Also, a part of the Christian community in Syria has been actively supporting President Assad, thus being an actor in the civil war. 

But some Syrian Christians say a series of incidents recently points to a trend of violence against Christian civilians, including priests. Particularly worrying, they say, is the growing presence of foreign radical Islamic fighters in the country, and the many Islamist brigades within the opposition Free Syrian Army. Yet there is fear of government forces as well. On Nov. 14, four missiles struck the Christian village of Tel Nasri in northeast Syria. St. Mary’s Church was severely damaged, as were many houses. As the Assyrian International News Agency reports, a 14-year old boy was killed and many were wounded, apparently by Assad’s fighter planes, though that is not confirmed. 

Before that, on Oct. 21st, a car bomb exploded near the gate of Bab Touma, the historical Christian neighborhood in Damascus. The car was parked next to two churches, a Maronite and a Latin church in Bab Touma street, which emerges into ‘the straight street’ mentioned in the Bible. The explosive detonated at a time when local Christians were heading to church for Sunday Mass. At least 10 people were killed and more than 16 injured. While the nearby police station may have been the target, the timing of the explosion meant that churchgoers would be hurt. 

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Copyright 2012 Open Doors News

Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only. For subscription information, contact: jeffth@opendoorsnews.org

The violence of man's inhumanity to man is horrific. “The wicked are brought down by their own wickedness,” says Proverbs (NKJV Prov 11:5 ). “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18 NKJV) commands God.

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Please Pray for the people of Syria....

– Bill Hunt 

America's Freedoms Lost

This story reflects the Worship and Work heritage of our early Americans. Under attack by socialism, we are now losing our national foundations right before our eyes.

"Pilgrims Going to Church" by George Henry Boughton (1867) 

   
Grandpa Walter Witherell labored hard as mechanic in his garage on the intersection of Massachusetts Route 66 at “the flats.” He served as official State Bee Keeper for many years, handling honey bees with no protective gear. Grandma Laura drove the school bus in Hampshire County through several generations of children. As driver, she delivered the Hampshire Gazette all along the rural route.

Of course, at their farm on the hill she cared for the sheep, milked the cows, sold the apples, and boiled the maple syrup into blocks of sugar. Did you ever eat taffy syrup on fresh fallen snow? Most of all, I remember her wood shed, pantry, and incredible full course, wood stove breakfasts.  

I benefited from observing their basic daily work and spiritual lives. So united were they, at the end of their lives they naturally died one night apart (Oct. 1968), as had his brother and wife, Earnest and Sadie Witherell.

Both were direct descendants of the early American Puritans in the Witherell, Church, and Blakesley ancestry. They worshiped in the Westhampton Congregational Church reflecting the simplicity of the early Puritans who built the foundations of this nation.

Westhampton Congregational
Church, founded 1779,
built 1785, 1816, 1829.

This church the townspeople established in 1779 and first built in 1785. Considered “the finest in the hill towns,” a new  church was built in 1816 that burned Feb. 18, 1829, and was immediately rebuilt that year.

The first pastor, Enoch Hale served 58 years. He was the dear elder brother to Capt. Nathan Hale, Washington's Revolutionary spy executed by the British (Sept. 22, 1776).

One member, Justin Edwards,  in a summer thunderstorm prayed with four friends in the Haystack Meeting (1806) which resulted in the founding of the great American Foreign Missions Movement. He served later as president of Andover Theological Seminary.


One ancestor, Rev. William Witherell, was a pastor so renowned in those early days of the Plymouth Colony, his church roll reflects some 608 baptisms. He served as pastor for 39 years from Sept. 2, 1645, till his death, Apr.9, 1685, at the the Second Church of Scituate, now after some 350 years, First Parish of Norwell.

William was born in 1600 and his mother is purported to be the daughter of John Rogers, the Smithfield martyr. William married Mary Fisher, Mar. 26, 1627, in Canterbury, Kent, England. William and Mary arrived in the Plymouth Bay Colony on board the ship Hercules in 1634. He was placed on the ministerial rolls by Cotton Mather.


The story is reported in the church archives that a young man, John Bryant, had a tendency to arrive late to Sunday service. So at an appropriate time following prayer in the service, the Rev. Witherell turned to address him.

“Neighbor Bryant, it is to your reproach that you have disturbed the worship by entering late, living as you do within a mile of this place. Especially since here is Goody Barstow who has milked seven cows, made a cheese and walked five miles to the house of God in good season” (Fewkes, R.M.).

John Bryant was not too put off by the rebuke. He married Pastor Witherell's daughter, Elizabeth, in 1657.

Even this early story reflects the worship and work heritage of these early Americans. I can't help adding, this very worship and work ethic which built America is under such severe attack by socialism, today. We are losing our national foundations right before our eyes.


References: 
Fewkes, R.M., “Church History: Lessons From 350 Years of History.” About Us, Feb. 2, 1992. http://www.firstparishnorwell.org/lessons.html 

“Witherell Family Genealogy” http://www.renderplus.com/hartgen/htm/witherell.htm

"In God We Trust."
Blessed Thanksgiving!
Bill Hunt 

India: Hindus Beat Christian Pastor in Hospital Bed

India is No. 37 on the World Watch List of the 50 countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian.

Offloading fish in Kamataka by Rudolph A Furtado

(www.wikimedia.org)

Karnataka, Kannur, Oct 11 (Open Doors News) — Hindu extremists beat a pastor unconscious by the side of the road, then attacked him in his hospital bed the next day.

Pastor John Samuel Kim, from the Jerusalem prayer house in Kannur village, a few kilometers away from Kolar District, told Open Doors News he was standing on the road with three friends, Oct. 11, after distributing wedding cards of his sister.

“A mob of 20 extremists questioned me on what I was doing in the village,” he said. “They pushed me, saying ‘Why [do] I always visit the village and tell people about Christ,’ accused me of forceful conversion and began to beat me with sticks and stones, kicked and punched me.”

The pastor fell unconscious when they kicked him in the groin. The attackers left and Kim’s friends summoned police. Kim was hospitalized with a broken rib, and injuries to his head and neck.

Early the next morning, four people entered Kim’s hospital ward.

“They told me that I should die, shook my bed and started to beat me again, and strangled me on my neck and brought a sharp weapon to cut my neck,” he said. Kim suffered a severe neck injury.

The attackers left when they heard the sound of people coming. Later, Kim provided a description of the attackers to police, who posted guard on the ward for the next seven days as the pastor recovered.

The police have registered a case against the attackers, but no arrests have been made.

Kolar District Police Superintendent Ram Niwas Seeat told Open Doors News that he and his team will continue to protect the pastor whenever necessary, and that they continue to search for the attackers.

The Global Council of Indian Christians, an advocacy group, said the Oct. 11 attack was the second on Kim within the past year. Three months earlier in Bangarapet, he was attacked in a similar way.

“I was crossing the flyover on my motorbike when they stopped me. They accused me of forceful conversion and beat me up,” Kim told Open Doors News.

The pastor did not file a police complaint after the first attack. “I have forgiven them and I thought that they will not disturb me again,” he said.

Attacks against pastors and Christian institutions have accelerated in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, where violence against Christians has been most frequent during the past nine months.

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Copyright 2012 Open Doors News

Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only. For subscription information, contact: jeffth@opendoorsnews.org

The violence of man's inhumanity to man is horrific. “The wicked are brought down by their own wickedness,” says Proverbs (NKJV Prov 11:5 ). “You shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Lev 19:18 NKJV) commands God. When will INDIA stop this vicious abuse among its peoples?

Pray for the people of India.

– Bill Hunt

World in Christ

Egypt Salafi Muslims Harass Coptic Christians

Egypt ranks No. 15 on the World Watch List of countries where it is most difficult to live as a Christian.

Egyptian Entryway in Cairo by AnnaSerio 
 (www.publicdomainpictures.net)

Cairo, Nov. 11 (Open Doors News) — It was a quick skirmish and no one was hurt, but it was typical of what Egypt’s Coptic leaders say are increasing attempts to harass Christians since the country’s 2011 revolution.

The latest incident occurred Monday, Nov. 5 in the Shoubra el Kheima district of northern Cairo, where a Coptic Orthodox Church service center is under construction.

Following the afternoon Muslim prayers, a group of Salafi Muslims occupied the construction site. They hung a sign:  Masjed El Rahman, or “Mosque of the Merciful.”

The Maspero Youth Union, a Copt activist group, said on its Facebook page that the intruders insisted the church did not have the necessary permits to build. Government officials later determined the church had all the required permissions in place.

For about 24 hours, however, members of the Coptic Church had to reckon with a group of Salafis who insisted Christians had no right to the land. In the early-morning hours of Tuesday, several members of the Maspero Youth Union made their way to the building site and began asking questions of the occupiers. 

“ ‘We have a small mosque at the end of the street and the presence of a church here will offend us,’” one of the Salafi occupiers said, according to one of the youth union members.

“And this small mosque has a license?” the Copt youth said he asked in reply.

“ ‘Do the houses of God need a license?’” he quoted the Muslim as saying.

“I was shocked by the answer,” the Copt youth said.

Coptic Bishop Antonius Marcos, who oversees that region of Cairo for the church, urged Christians to avoid direct confrontation with the Salafis even as he lodged complaints with the government officials.

“The church doesn’t intend or wish to have any kind of confrontation with anybody. We are all brothers living in a same country,” Bishop Marcos said. 

According to Middle East Concern, a Britain-based Christian human-rights association, the church’s construction project has the support of the governor for that region of Egypt.

The Salafi occupiers left the construction site Tuesday.

The brief occupation of the construction site occurred only one day after Copts selected their new pope, Bishop Tawadros II, who will assume the throne on Nov. 18. He succeeds Pope Shenouda III, who died in March. Copts make up more than 10 million of Egypt’s 80 million people.

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Copyright 2012 Open Doors News

Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only. For subscription information, contact: jeffth@opendoorsnews.org

Getting Along with Marriage and Friends

Precious values mark marriage and friends like spattered blossoms.

Love is Spattered Blossoms (Bill Hunt Photo) 

As men and women approach the age of integrity, they realize points of value in relations, and they want to help others. Here's points my wife and I learned and want to share with you.

1. Forgive immediately, you must. It's not an option. You can not enter Heaven unless you forgive completely.

"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses (Matt 6:14-15 NKJV).

2. Give others time to heal. Don't close in on them with judgment. Peter denied Jesus three times the night of the betrayal. But Jesus gave him space before he reaffirmed him three times on the beach at breakfast.

He said to him the third time, "Simon, son of Jonah, do you love Me?" Peter was grieved because He said to him the third time, "Do you love Me?" And he said to Him, "Lord, You know all things; You know that I love You." Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep” (John 21:17 NKJV).

3. Never take or keep offense. Block it. Scientists are learning more and more about cellular memory, how the entire body remembers trauma emotionally and stores it away problematically causing our spiritual, physical, and emotional conditions. Let it go.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails (1Cor 13:4-8 NKJV).

4. People do not realize God forgives perfectly. To forgive perfectly, he must also forget perfectly. God does not forgive partially, he restores our innocence. He wipes the slate clean as we repent. It is only the devil who tries to harass the repentant servant of past sins; he lies.

Then He (God) adds, "Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more” (Heb 10:17 NKJV).

5. Divorce is not an option. It's like this, the man and the woman in marriage each gives up their own territory and must not take it back. Marriage is now God's sanctified territory. He is the overall third partner.

"So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate" (Mt 19:6 NKJV).

Friendship can last, too.

– Bill Hunt

World in Christ

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The Minister

Who is this Minister who claims to be the Messiah of God?

The Minister

Let me tell you. This minister is unique, my friend; he taught us many wonderful things. Love God with all your being, with all your heart, mind, soul, and body. And love each other, as one's self.

He taught us to live and obey the ten commandments as God gave Moses on the mountain.

He said to repent of our sins and to believe in him as the radiance of the Father's Glory and his exact representation. He gave us eternal life and God's eternal favor as a free gift.

He gave us a new command, even to love each other as he loved us. We felt from him constant, overwhelming love. He also said to love one another as we want others to love us.

He proved his love as he died for us. No greater Love has anyone than he lay down his life for his friends. We are bought, paid for, ransomed, and redeemed by his Love as a free gift.

The minister wanted us to completely trust and obey the Father as he did. He always asked the Father's Will before he did anything. He was like the ancient Hebrews who consulted God before they acted or went into battle.

The minister taught us to pray. He said we must forgive others, or we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

The minister said we should be ready to help others in need, even our enemies. To feed them, to give them drink, to house strangers, to help others with proper clothing. He wanted us to visit the sick and those in prison. He said when we helped others, it would be the same as helping him.

He also gave us the Holy Spirit and sent us to preach and to witness, and to forgive sins. To heal the sick, to raise the dead, to cleanse the leper, to cast out demons. And he told us to do it all for Free, that he would always provide for us and be with us.

He explained how he is the way, the truth, and the life. He is the only way to the Father. He taught us many other things as well.

No man ever taught or lived as this man. Come follow him.

– Bill Hunt

World in Christ

God Defeats Armies

God defeats armies. The True God acts on behalf of his True Servants. God's true servants can not be defeated because God can not be defeated.

Elijah Calls Fire from Heaven (Woodcut, Nuremberg, 1702).

  

God's true servants can not be defeated because God cannot be defeated. The Scriptures contain many instances where even enemy armies of overwhelming size and strength are defeated by God's power.

“The battle is not mine, but the Lord's.”

First, we must admit the servants God so blesses are marked with lives dedicated to God through obedience. Yes, they sometimes feel reluctance facing confrontation, but they chose obedience when God directs them. Frequently, they consult God before battle.

“Fear not, for those who are with us

are more than those with them.”

One of my favorite stories is when King Ahaziah fell through the upper lattice of his palace in Samaria and injured himself. He sent palace messengers to the town of Ekron to consult the idol, Baal-Zebub, (Sound familiar?) regarding the King's health. God told the Prophet Elijah because the King consulted the idol, the King would not recover, but die.

Even today, servants forget to consult the True God of the Universe. Undoubtedly, many do not really believe in Him, except as a last resort.

The King asked the royal messenger who had spoken to them. They described Elijah the Tishbite as a man wearing a hair garment and a leather belt, very prophet-like. King Ahaziah sent a company of fifty soldiers to bring Elijah to the King. Bad mistake.

“Man of God” ordered the curt commander, “Come down!”

“If I am a man of God,” answered Elijah, “may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men.” And it did. In fact, the King sent another fifty men and the same result occurred again. They were burnt toast.

When the King sent a third company, this unit's commander was a little wiser and a little more humble. He fell on his knees. (Another lesson for today.)

“Man of God,” he said. “Please respect my life and the lives of my men.”

God told Elijah to go with him. In the outcome, Elijah again told the King that because he consulted the idol, he would most certainly die. And the King died. Even today, men make idols, substitute concepts in their hearts, or use idols that are not the True God. And they wonder why their prayers are not answered.

You can read about miraculous battles as a matter of scriptural record, Moses, Joshua, Gideon, Hezekiah, Deborah and Barak, Jonathan, David, and many more. And there are many reports from modern wars.

The True God acts on behalf of his True Servants.

“He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 NKJV).

(Story Ref. 2 Kings 1 NKJV)

– Bill Hunt

World in Christ/Messiah

Egypt Christians Offer Water Wash Feet of Muslims

An Act of Love and Service touched the Cairo, Egypt, Muslims and the Christians.

Muslims Wash for Prayers in Pakistan (Photo by Bill Hunt)

  

Sept. 27, 2012 (Open Doors News) — Across much of the Muslim world, more than two weeks of backlash to the Internet video "Innocence of the Muslims" has occasionally been directed at Christians, from computer hacks to church burnings. Yet amid the anger and violence in several countries, there have been some moments of peace.

Unable to breach the perimeter of the U.S. embassy in Cairo, some Egyptian protesters turned their attention to the nearby Kasr-el-Dobara Evangelical Church.

"Death to the worshipers of the cross!" they painted on the wall. The mob began to damage the downstairs bookshop.

Then a man emerged from the crowd and started yelling. He said the Christians from the church had come to his aid, tending his wounds, during the 2011 popular uprising against the Egyptian government.

Then another man stepped forward, and said the church had offered water, earlier that very day, to wash the feet of Muslims before prayers.

The crowd fell silent, turned, and left.

In Zinder, Niger, on Sept. 14, about 1,000 Muslims emerged from the Friday Jumu'ah prayers, divided into groups of several hundred each, and started marching toward the churches in town. They set the Winners Chapel afire. They severely vandalized the Union of Evangelical and Protestant churches’ community center, the Church of the Assemblies of God, and a Catholic church.

Several Christians were injured, though the exact number has not been verified. After police regained control at the churches, smaller groups damaged the homes of the evangelical church pastor and homes of members of the Catholic church. Police made numerous arrests.

Meanwhile, as far away as Pakistan, Christians anticipated the wave of Muslim anger to wash into their country. On Sept. 21, an angry mob torched St. Paul Lutheran Church in Pakistan's Mardan district. Protestors destroyed not only the church building but a school attended by Christian and Muslim children.

Copyright 2012 Open Doors News
 www.opendoorsnews.org
See full article.



An Act of Love and Service touched the Muslims and the Christians.
--Bill Hunt

Open Doors News is distributed to raise awareness of Christians worldwide who are persecuted for their faith. Articles may be reprinted by active subscribers only.

     

Greatest Wife in History

Some Preachers preach a Proverbs 31 Woman does not exist. I found one.

Greatest Wife in History

It is Sunday morning. My dear wife of 44 years has flown north to visit her mother for the weekend. Two of our most beautiful daughters (all are) from Houston are meeting her at the airport in Syracuse. Now that's a gathering of women in Upstate New York's Adirondack fall foliage. Something like a dream.

Saturday and Sunday mornings are Mary's and my special prayer times. God wakes us usually very early mornings at 4:44, 3:33, and sometimes 2:22. Heaven's calls. The Holy Spirit indwells our living room and Jesus comes to sit on the divan. It's our garden place we meet him. We often start prayer times together with five Psalms. What does Jesus say? Read my articles. Like this one.

Mary and I birthed six children, girl and boy in Anchorage, girl in Waterville, girl in Bryn Mawr, girl in Brunswick, and boy in Ocala. As adults, God has sprinkled them like seasonings around the nation to serve him, Ocala, Jacksonville, Houston, and Seattle. We have ten grandchildren.

“Father, make all our children, great servants of the Lord,” is my prayer.

Mary is a passionate Irish-Italian. God brought us together through the Holy Spirit at Syracuse University. She is a delicate-touch concert pianist and singer, now always a worshiper glorifying the Lord. She is a high school salutatorian and a college full-scholarship cum laude. She works as a serious GED teacher to men in state prison. And she is always the most beautiful woman I have ever met in body, mind, heart, and spirit.

God anointed Mary with great gifts. She is an ardent seeker of truth, which led us to true life in Jesus with the Holy Spirit. She has an incredible gift of flaming service. She is a serious prophetess speaker for God. She is emotionally sensitive. She's always a concerned hostess about company coming; she feels she's got to do everything just right. She can cook anything, Italian lasagna, Baked Alaska, Chinese combined, or gourmet leftovers. And she's never ever dull, more like spontaneous and exciting.

Mary gets up early when I arise. And she always sleeps and won't move from her chair next to me until we go to bed. That's service. I've heard preachers wrongly preach that such a woman does not exist. Mary is the Proverbs 31 woman. She is.

I am blessed from glory to glory,

Bill Hunt

America’s Most Biblically-Hostile President

When President Obama's hostility toward Biblical people of faith is contrasted with his preferential treatment of Muslims and Muslim nations, it further strengthens the accuracy of the anti-Biblical descriptor. 

Denish D'Souza at White House

(David Barton, WallBuilders) When one observes President Obama’s unwillingness to accommodate America’s four-century long religious conscience protection through his attempts to require Catholics to go against their own doctrines and beliefs, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Catholic. But that characterization would not be correct.

Although he has recently singled out Catholics, he has equally targeted traditional Protestant beliefs over the past four years. So since he has attacked Catholics and Protestants, one is tempted to say that he is anti-Christian. But that, too, would be inaccurate.

He has been equally disrespectful in his appalling treatment of religious Jews in general and Israel in particular. So perhaps the most accurate description of his antipathy toward Catholics, Protestants, religious Jews, and the Jewish nation would be to characterize him as anti-Biblical.

And then when his hostility toward Biblical people of faith is contrasted with his preferential treatment of Muslims and Muslim nations, it further strengthens the accuracy of the anti-Biblical descriptor. In fact, there have been numerous clearly documented times when his pro-Islam positions have been the cause of his anti-Biblical actions.

Listed below (in the full WallBuilders article) in chronological order are (1) numerous records of his attacks on Biblical persons or organizations; (2) examples of the hostility toward Biblical faith that have become evident in the past three years in the Obama-led military; (3) a listing of his open attacks on Biblical values; and finally (4) a listing of numerous incidents of his preferential deference for Islam’s activities and positions, including letting his Islamic advisors guide and influence his hostility toward people of Biblical faith.

(Continued on WallBuilders.)

David Barton - 02/29/2012

Read full article on <wwwWallBuilders.com>.

Also, see the movie “2016” Obama's America or visit <www.2016themovie.com>.

2016 Obama’s America takes audiences on a gripping visual journey into the heart of the world’s most powerful office to reveal the struggle of whether one man’s past will redefine America over the next four years. The film examines the question, “If Obama wins a second term, where will we be in 2016?” Across the globe and in America, people in 2008 hungered for a leader who would unite and lift us from economic turmoil and war. True to America’s ideals, they invested their hope in a new kind of president, Barack Obama. What they didn’t know is that Obama is a man with a past, and in powerful ways that past defines him--who he is, how he thinks, and where he intends to take America and the world.

Also, See the DVD, “Agenda Grinding America Down” or visit <www.AgendaDocumentary.com>.

See DVD for Every American, as on John Hagee Ministries <www.JHM.org>. Documented Story of the Communist, Socialist, Progressive take over of America. Get the award winning documentary that reveals the true direction our society is moving… be informed about the intentional changes that are happening and discover what you can do to stand up against these forces.

--Bill Hunt

World in Christ 

IRIS Ministries Africa by Air

An airplane for me is a cathedral of prayer in the sky. We bring a Kingdom of Love. – Roland Baker, Mozambique

 We bring a Kingdom of Love. – Roland Baker, Mozambique

The yawning wilderness of Africa slides benignly beneath us, its isolated huts and occasional footpaths hidden from our lofty vantage point in the sky. The whole continent seems uninhabited, the province of natural grandeur, unspoiled vistas, crowned by untamed vastness. And yet we know that Africa is not called the dark continent for nothing. In all that magnificence below there are people, millions of them, who for centuries, even millennia, have been held under the cruel heel of the evil one. But God in His love and wisdom is changing that, and we live to partake of His nature and be part of His plan of salvation for Africa! 

An airplane for me is a cathedral of prayer in the sky. My meditations and interactions with Him in the clouds and heights are undisturbed by the tumult and clashing of problems on the ground. But now we are free in our cozy aerial cocoon to contemplate with our God and Lover what is to come in the lives of the incomprehensibly poor in southern Malawi. We delight in our God, but we do not live for bare pleasure. We have come to Africa to face directly the sufferings of this land.

"But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. And who is equal to such a task" (2 Cor. 2:14-16)? 

 

We are here to improve the physical lives of the poor in every way possible, and thereby demonstrate what love looks like. But ultimately we are here to save souls. We are here to rescue the perishing and bring them eternal life. We bring a Kingdom not made with hands, not one that we can see, but a never-ending Kingdom that is within us, a Kingdom of love, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. We live for another life, in another place, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. We are here to bring Jesus our Perfect Savior to Africa, and to set its sights on Him and eternity!

– Roland and Heidi Baker

Visit www.IRIS MIN.org

Iris Ministries | Pemba | Mozambique

Copyright © 2012 IRIS Ministries. All rights reserved.

With permission.

Pray for, and Visit! www.IRIS MIN.org

– Bill Hunt

World in Christ

People of Cuba In the Storm

Prayer for Cuba, Night of 8-26-2012, as Hurricane Isaac threatens.

(Storm Recon US NOAA)

I pray for a people forgotten,

a people spurned,

a people coming awake,

a people in the Night.

Father, touch them with

your love.

Touch them with your Love.

Open your eyes from above.

Protect them safe from the storm.

Open your eyes from above.

See the Kingdom of Heaven,

Yeshua Ha Meshiach.

Jesus God-Messiah,

Captain of the boat,

calm the seas.

Expect a visit from the King.

to your island,

to your own humble hovel,

to your heart.

Excitement from the King,

a visit to your hovel.

Yeshua Ha Meshiach,

calm the seas.

--Bill Hunt

World in Christ

Defend Yourself from Slander

Slander spreads worldwide, whether religious, political, or business. Men seem to think they can win with Lies and not with Truth.

The Good Shepherd, Abbott Illustration NT, 1878

   

Slander is Satan's viral plague no man can contain.

Like a raging flood running deep,

sandbags won't hold its banks.

Slander rots a man's reputation and shames

even his innocence.

I have seen fools contrive slander and

actually believe their own false fabrications.

Men who speak slander are a nest of

slithering vipers with poisoned fangs.

"Brood of vipers! How can you, being evil, speak good 

things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth 

speaks” (Mt 12:34).

Take it from me. The way to defend from slander

is to remember the crown of thorns. The world

tortured the most perfect man on earth for his innocence.

You're not alone. The darkness hates the Light.

"You shall not circulate a false report” (Ex 23:1).

Wise men choose not to believe slander.

Block your ears and refuse to consider it.

“Therefore all those who devour you, shall be devoured” 

(Jer 30:16). God will vindicate the victims of this world. 

The evil will be judged on the Day of Wrath.

"You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor” 

(Ex 20:16). Is the 9^th commandment.

“And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue 

is so set among our members that it defiles the whole 

body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set 

on fire by hell” (Jas 3:6).

“Bless those who persecute you; bless

and do not curse” (Rom 12:14). Is God's Word.

Blessing strengthens, cursing destroys.

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking 

be put away from you, with all malice” (Eph 4:31).

"The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and 

to destroy” (John 10:10).

Will you do Satan's bidding? Can he count on you?

Rather, Jesus Messiah-God says,

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may 

have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

"Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free 

indeed” (John 8:36).

“No weapon formed against you shall prosper,

And every tongue which rises against you

in judgment you shall condemn.

This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,

and their righteousness is from Me”  (Isa 54:17-- 

All scriptures are NKJV).

– Bill Hunt

World in Christ