Three men, one of them armed with a gun and wearing gloves, threatened a Protestant church and its pastor in the Turkish capital city of Ankara yesterday. The culprits fled in a car before police could be summoned.

The attempted attack marked the seventh incident in the past four months of threatened violence against Turkey’s tiny Protestant community, most of whom are former Muslims who converted to Christianity.

Shortly before 6 p.m. Tuesday (May 6), three men drove up in a blue car to the Kurtulus Church in Ankara’s Cebeci district. A heavy-set man about 45 years old went up to the locked church building and began to ring the doorbell repeatedly.

“Where is the pastor? We are searching for the pastor,” he said to a church member nearby who was cleaning his car.

The church member, who happened to be waiting outside the building for a friend, explained that the church was closed and the pastor was not around. He suggested that they return on Sunday, when the church would be open for worship services between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m.

“So are you involved here?” demanded the inquirer.

“Yes,” responded the church member. “Why are you looking for the pastor?”

Ignoring the question, the suspect again asked where the pastor could be found. When the church member again suggested they come back on Sunday, the man demanded, “Tell us! We are going to get rid of that pastor!”

Turning around, the suspect returned to his car and consulted with its two occupants. Then another middle-aged man got out of the car. Holding a pistol in his gloved right hand, the assailant began walking toward the church member, shouting and pointing the weapon at him.

“I ran toward a crowded area 20 meters away,” the church member said. “The suspect followed me for awhile. Then we both stopped. He stared at me for a few seconds and then went back to his friends at the car, and they drove off.”

The semi-official Anatolian News Agency claimed in its report yesterday that the attackers were drunk. But the church member who interacted with them said he had no indication that the men were under the influence of alcohol.

Although the Kurtulus Church had installed a security camera a year ago, shortly after the knifing murders of three Christians in Malatya, the recording had been accidentally disabled when the computer to which it was linked was switched off last Sunday after the church service.

Together with two of his church members, Kurtulus Church pastor Ihsan Ozbek spent most of last night with police officers investigating the incident. “The police seem to be taking the incident and the threat seriously,” Ozbek said.

One of his church members remarked, “For sure they don’t want any violence against Christians to happen here in the capital!”

“Unfortunately these things keep happening here in Turkey,” Ozbek said. “I hope that the state will do something, because we are not in any position to protect ourselves.”

Echoing comments made by the chairman of the Alliance of Turkish Protestant Churches at the Istanbul memorial service for the Malatya martyrs on April 20, Ozbek said, “The Turkish people must decide. **Are they going to keep killing us, or are they going to allow us to worship in peace?” **

Not Youths

One Kurtulus Church leader said that it was significant that the suspects in this incident were middle-aged men, not youths. Previous attacks and threats against Turkey’s Christians during the past two years have all been attributed to young men, many of them minors under 18 years of age.

In addition, he said, the assailants came to the church in broad daylight without covering their faces, openly brandishing a gun, but taking care to conceal their fingerprints.

Yesterday’s incident was the seventh in a string of attacks and threats faced by Turkey’s Protestants in the past four months.

Ten days ago, police informed another Turkish Christian pastor in Ankara that someone involved in a plot to attack him had been caught and arrested.

The 30-year-old suspect, who was reportedly jailed and facing trial on charges filed by the state prosecutor, had previously visited the church and tried to arrange a private appointment with the pastor.

Last month in Kocaeli province, 50 miles from Istanbul, two nights in a row unidentified youths stoned the building of a Protestant congregation in Derince, breaking most of the windows. Security police were posted at the building after the incident.

Back in early March, members of the Protestant congregation in Gaziantep received a flood of threatening telephone calls to themselves, their families and their work places.

One European family attending a church in Istanbul’s Uskudar district was subjected to a security police visit at their home on February 14. Claiming to be investigating a complaint that the couple were involved in “missionary activity,” the plainclothes police interrogated them for 50 minutes.

Despite the complete legality of spreading one’s religious beliefs in Turkey, the police officers bombarded the couple with unfounded accusations and threatened to revoke their residence visas.

On January 25, the Izmit Protestant Church suffered still another attack when five youths threw rocks and broke a window in the pastor’s study. Another assailant remains on trial for starting a fire at the front door and shooting off a gun on the street outside the church last September.

In the first week of January, a 17-year-old was arrested with a gun in his possession after police overheard his telephone conversation, threatening a massacre against the Samsun Agape Church along the Black Sea coast. He remains on trial, although local judges released him and he failed to attend the first court hearing against him in March.

Turkish Protestants have listed 19 separate incidents of violence against their church buildings and members during the 2007 calendar year.

In the most prominent case, the five young men arrested for the slaughter of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske on April 18, 2007 will return for their sixth hearing before the Malatya criminal court on Monday (May 12).

Although prosecutors are demanding three consecutive life sentences for the culprits, Turkey’s Protestants remain unconvinced that the Turkish judicial system is committed to uncovering and prosecuting the instigators behind the five alleged killers.

“We don’t really expect justice to be done in this case,” one church leader admitted last weekend, after the graveside memorial service in Izmir for Aydin.

Source: Compass

• Pray for peace-of-mind for Christians in Turkey.

• pray that the Church of Turkey will have the strength to forgive and embrace those who persecute them.

• Pray* that justice will be down in all cases.

An advocacy organization reported this week that Chinese authorities now accuse a Beijing businessman of being a dangerous religious element – which a long-time friend dismissed as contrary to Christian bookstore owner Shi Weihan’s gentle, patriotic nature.

Authorities have been slow to reveal charges against Shi, who after his original arrest for illegal business practices on November 28, 2007 was released on January 4 due to insufficient evidence. He was re-arrested on March 19, according to his wife Zhang Jing, for printing Bibles and Christian literature.

Until last week he had been denied a visit by his attorney. Following that visit, China Aid Association reported on Monday (April 28) that authorities were holding Shi at the Beijing Municipal Detention Center as a dangerous religious element.

“During the meeting with his attorney, Shi’s talk was interrupted by the guards on several occasions and he received a warning,” according to a statement by CAA. Interrogation of Shi, the lawyer told CAA, has centered on his relationship with foreigners, especially those from the United States.

Long-time friend Ray Sharpe said that Shi’s many foreign relationships as a travel agent may have raised undue suspicions by Chinese authorities.

“They may have suspicions about his patriotism since he has so many foreign friends,” Sharpe said in a statement to supporters. “If so, they would again be wrong. I know him to be a successful travel agent because he works so hard to help all of his clients fall in love with his beloved homeland. He longs for foreigners to understand China’s culture, her history, her many proud accomplishments.”

The Beijing Public Security Bureau may have mistaken him as a dangerous religious element who might embarrass the government during the Olympic Games beginning in August, Sharpe said.

“I know him to be a man that has been promoting the Olympics as a time when many tourists from around the globe would be able to see China, whom he loves so dearly, at her best,” Sharpe said. “He dislikes foreigners who are critical of China, often stating that they do so out of ignorance of the tremendous strides that have already been made.”

In his statement, Sharpe also dismissed the possible perception that Shi opposes Chinese government policy.

“I know him as someone who dislikes Christians that use their faith as an excuse to oppose the government,” he said. “I know him as someone who often councils other Christians that we ought to be the best of citizens in whatever country we live. I know him as someone who teaches others to love their country, pray for their government and obey the public officials as though they were placed over us by God.”

There is concern for Shi’s health, as he is a diabetic. CAA reported that Shi’s attorney said he was in dire need of medical attention.

“However, the detention center authorities refused to provide medications or even the most basic humanitarian treatment,” the organization said.

Shi’s wife has said she has been prohibited from bringing the 37-year-old father of two any food or change of clothing since his re-arrest.

Operating a bookstore located near the Olympic Village, Shi had never had any problems with authorities before his arrest last November, according to Sharpe.

“The PSB may have misunderstood how even casual friends from the West will be moved to action when an acquaintance seems to be suffering an injustice,” he said. “They may be wondering who could have orchestrated a world-wide effort to plead his cause. In China, not many casual acquaintances, let alone outright strangers, will get involved in a matter that concerns someone with whom they have no close relationship.”

Source: Compass

• Pray for Shi’s health and well being.

• Pray for Shi’s wife through the stressful times of not being able to look after her husband let a lone see him.

• Pray against injustice in Shi’s case.

The Hindu nationalist government in Rajasthan state has closed a police investigation into a televised attack on pastor Walter Masih a year ago today after withdrawing the more serious charges against the accused.

The state government ruled by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has refused to sanction prosecution under the more serious charges of the 14 Hindu extremists of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (World Hindu Council or VHP), who were accused of attacking Pastor Masih with sticks and rods, leaving him bleeding profusely in the state capital, Jaipur.

Police had arrested 14 of the 20 alleged attackers in the April 29, 2007 assault and filed a case against them for rioting, causing hurt, trespassing and causing damage – but without including any charges related to religion-related offenses, which provide for stricter penal action.

The prosecution filed a charge sheet against the accused in a trial court in August 2007 but also acknowledged that some other charges were still pending. Later police added charges of hate speech, insulting a religion or religious beliefs and offensive statements made in a place of worship.

As required by law, police sought the state government’s sanction for prosecution of these charges, which would bring harsher sentences. At the same time, all of the accused were released on bail by the Rajasthan High Court.

Now the government has refused to give sanction for prosecution of the more serious charges, instead ordering closure of the investigation under the original charges.

Frustrated, Masih told CNN-IBN news channel that the government’s move amounted to protection of the attackers. “We want justice, please help us,” he said.

Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria told the channel, “It’s sad that just because he’s a Christian, so much undue importance is being given to this case.”

Source: Compass

• Pray that God will bring justice in this case.

• Pray that Walter Masih will not be discouraged from his faith in Jesus as a result of the actions taken.

On trial for converting from Islam to Christianity, a Jordanian man may lose legal custody of his children and have his marriage annulled if found guilty of “apostasy.” Mohammad Abbad, 40, fled Jordan last month after Muslims violently attacked him and his 10-year-old son in their home and his father sued him on charges of apostasy, or leaving Islam.
“I can’t win this case as long as I insist that I converted from Islam to Christianity,” Abbad wrote from the safety of a nearby country.

“The court will annul my marriage, I will be deprived of my kids, I will be with no ID or passport, and my properties will be confiscated,” said the father of two, referring to a previous Jordanian apostasy verdict.

One of only a few Jordanians to leave Islam for Christianity, Abbad said he became a Christian as a young man in Jordan and grew in his faith while working abroad in 1993. “I had an encounter with the Lord Jesus who changed my life, filled my heart with love and gave me the grace of enjoying life,” the convert said.

In 1994, Abbad married a Jordanian from a Christian family, and together they had two children. When Abbad returned to Jordan in 2000, his father began criticizing him in front of his mother and siblings, claiming that “suspicious organizations” were paying Abbad to remain Christian. Abbad’s father encouraged the rest of the family to shun the convert, who was otherwise able to quietly practice his faith free of overt harassment.

Last month a married couple who had been raised Muslim but had converted to Christianity moved into Abbad’s home for several days to escape death threats from relatives. The wife’s brothers discovered the couple’s location and visited Abbad’s house on the evening of March 23. While the visitors were talking with their sister, three other family members broke into the room and began attacking Abbad and the convert husband.

“My 10-year-old son tried to help me when he saw me fall down, but he was hit on the face near his eye,” Abbad said.

The brothers struck Abbad several times on his head and body, wounding his chest and his right eye. They also beat his wife’s face and neck before forcibly abducting their sister. “My chest was bleeding and I was so dizzy, my wife and kids were hysterical, especially when they saw that I could not breath,” Abbad said.

Having received an initial medical examination, Abbad went to a local police station where he found his father registering a complaint against him for his conversion. The Muslim father, who had been in touch with Abbad’s attackers, demanded custody of Abbad’s children.

Police registered Abbad’s complaint and asked him to come back the next morning for follow-up. But the next day, officials brought Abbad before Judge Faysal Khreisat of Sweileh’s sharia (Islamic law) court on a charge of apostasy. According to Abbad, Khreisat ridiculed him for his conversion.

“He mocked me and said I was crazy,” the convert said. “When he saw how persistent I was, he accused me of contempt of court and ordered that I be imprisoned for a week, although I told him that I had been attacked and needed medication according to the [medical] reports.”

Mohammad Abbad in the hospital

Still recovering from his injuries, Abbad fainted on his way to jail from the court. Police refused to provide him any treatment but called an ambulance when he again fainted three hours later.

“The paramedics began mocking me when they found out I was a convert,” the Christian said. Once at the hospital, Abbad waited for an hour and a half because he had no money to pay the initial $30 treatment fee. Eventually his wife discovered his location and took him to a private hospital, where he received medical tests for his head, eye and chest.

He spent the night in the hospital handcuffed to his bed. “I felt that animals in other countries are treated better [than I was],” Abbad said.

Though the Islamic court judge initially refused to allow Abbad to post bail, threatening to blacklist the Christian from leaving the country, an in-law eventually freed Abbad for $14,000 on March 25. The couple left Jordan with their two children three days later.
The Christian convert whose wife’s relatives had attacked Abbad also appeared before Khreisat on March 24. The Muslim judge threatened to legally dissolve the convert’s marriage and became furious when he found out the man’s wife had also become a Christian.

“He was under huge pressure that day from his in-laws, so when
he and his wife stood in front of the judge the next day March 25, they denied being Christians,” Abbad said. By declaring the Muslim creed three times before the court, the couple officially re-converted to Islam.

The five attackers were arrested on March 26 and charged with assault. But when the convert woman’s family threatened to forcibly separate her from her husband, he dropped all charges and the attackers were released. At a subsequent court hearing in Abbad’s apostasy trial on March 30, the absence of Abbad and his wife prompted the judge to issue warrants for the couple’s arrest. During a third hearing the following week, Khreisat ordered Abbad’s father to produce his son’s marriage certificate by Tuesday (April 22) in order to annul the Christian couple’s marriage.

Tuesday’s hearing saw no new developments, only a request from the judge for further documentation, Abbad said.

‘Freedom of Religion’

Writing from a nearby country where he has temporarily settled with his wife, son and 11-year-old daughter, Abbad said that he was happy to be safe and united with his family. “I hope and pray that I will be able to help other believers in Jordan not to be treated in a bad way,” the convert said.

The exact number of Muslim converts to Christianity in Jordan is unknown. Many choose to maintain a low profile in order to avoid harassment. Jordan’s constitution guarantees freedom of religion, as does the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights that was made law in July 2006. But Muslim conversion to another faith is forbidden by the country’s official religion, Islam.

According to one Jordanian publication this month, there are even “unwritten rules” against evangelism. Like Abbad’s father, many Jordanians, including government officials, believe that foreign Christians pay Muslims to convert. Officials told Jordan Business that foreign missionaries had targeted Iraqi refugees with promises of U.S. passports.

Source:Compass

Hundreds of Muslims took to the streets of a northern Nigerian city on Sunday April 20, attacking Christians and their shops and setting vehicles on fire on claims that a Christian had blasphemed Muhammad, the prophet of Islam.

Thousands of Christians were trapped in churches until police dispersed rioters. Fearing that Muslims may attack again, many Christians have relocated to army and police barracks in the city.

An as yet unidentified Christian was said to have written an inscription on a shop wall that disparaged the prophet of Islam. Muslims at a market in the city reportedly attacked the Christian, whom police rescued and took to the area police station.

Muslims in large numbers soon trooped to the police station, threatening to set it ablaze unless officers released the Christian to be stoned to death in accordance with sharia (Islamic law), sources said. Police were able to disperse the mob.

“A Christian trader was accused of making some blasphemous inscriptions against Muhammad in his shop by his Muslim colleagues, who pounced on him,” Baba Mohammed, Kano police spokesman, said in a special radio broadcast.

He said the accused Christian escaped from being lynched and ran to the police station seeking protection, adding, “We had to move him to the police headquarters here in Kano for protection.”

Police have arrested some of the Muslim rioters, he said, adding that an investigation is underway.

“We have made several arrests of persons suspected of attempting to breach the peace while the suspect [accused Christian] is in our custody pending conclusion of the investigation,” Mohammed said.

Nnamdi Ike, a Christian who witnessed the disturbances, said in Kano that Muslim claims that a Christian painted an inscription insulting Muhammad were false.

“Christians have always been attacked on false claims of blasphemy,” Ike said. “No Christian wrote anything against Muhammad or Islam. It is all a lie. They just made this up to find a reason to attack us.”

In the past year, four cases of false claims of blasphemy against Christians have been reported in Kano state, three in high schools and this latest one in the market area.

The three alleged blasphemy cases in high schools were reported in the towns of Tudun Wada, Gwarzo, and Samaila. In all these public high schools, Christian students were attacked, injured or sent home from school.

Additionally, in 1994 Muslim fanatics beheaded Gideon Akaluka, a Christian held in a Kano prison over claims that he desecrated the Quran.

Source: Compass

• Pray for peace in this are of Nigeria.

• Pray for strength for all the Christians affected by this and that they will not be discouraged from their faith.

• Pray that the Christians in this area will continue to be Christ-like in all that happens regarding this situation.

On the eve of the one-year mark of the slaughter of three Christians here, the impartiality of the judges in the case is in doubt, and the young men on trial have now shifted the blame to one man.

Accused killers Cuma Ozdemir, Abuzer Yildirim and Salih Gurler had been caught at the scene of the crime on April 18, 2007, butcher knives in their hands and the blood of the victims on their clothing. But like Hamit Ceker, the first suspect to testify in January, the three suspects declared at the fifth hearing on Monday (April 14) that they had not participated in the actual killings of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske.

Instead, in Malatya Third Criminal Court they claimed it was Emre Gunaydin, the fifth culprit and alleged ringleader of the attack, who personally tortured and then slit the throats of the three Christians.

In their statements before a packed courtroom, the three said Gunaydin had deceived them, telling them his plan was just to infiltrate and intimidate these Christian missionaries whom he claimed were trying to divide Turkey and destroy Islam.

“We will go to their office and gather information,” suspect Gurler said Gunaydin told them the night before the attack. “The information would contain the intentions of the missionaries and their activities,” he explained, including CDs and computer files.

According to Ozdemir, Gunaydin said the purpose of buying five knives and a considerable length of clothesline cord was to be used to frighten them and extract more information.

When Ozdemir asked about the three guns they were taking along, he said Gunaydin told him, “I’ll explain that later.”

Although the suspects admitted they followed Gunaydin’s orders to force the Christians onto the floor, tie their hands and feet and then stuff their mouths with towels, they insisted they had tried to stop him when he began to stab and torture the victims.

I wanted to go, Gurler said. My purpose was to get Emre to give up on this…to tell him we could not get any information from them.

Previously Ceker had testified at the second hearing, “Salih, Abuzer, Cuma and I told Emre that nothing remained for us to do and we needed to leave. He answered, No, now they know me. I won’t leave without killing them.

When cross-examined over the content of letters they said Gunaydin ordered them all to write to their families just before the attack, the suspects still claimed they did not expect violence or arrest over the incident.

Ozdemir’s letter addressed to his mother, father and siblings, read out to the court by the prosecutor, declared in part, “We are going to die, we will die for our nation. Trust Allah, my brothers. We will attack the Christians’ homes, and we will take our Muslim brothers’ revenge.

In almost rehearsed fashion, all four suspects insist they were terrified of Gunaydin because of his apparent connections through his older brother and uncles with local mafia elements as well as influential police officers.

Because I was afraid, I didn’t disobey whatever he said, Gurler said. The suspects said Gunaydin had threatened repercussions against them and their families if they tried to pull out of the plot.

Several times the judge also made light of details in the gruesome case, such as asking one suspect what they were planning to do with the clothesline rope. Were you going to hang up clothes? he bantered.

A nationwide memorial service commemorating the three Malatya martyrs on the first anniversary of their deaths will be held on Sunday afternoon (April 20) at Istanbul’s St. Esprit Cathedral.

• Continue to pray for the families of the murdered victims.

• Pray for strength and peace as the on-going court case is continuing to be challenging!

Source: Compass

Sue’s one of the motivators behind this and we met in her front room: 25-odd people, 2 cats and a dog. After chatting for a bit and worshipping together, we watched a video about a Sunday school in China where the secret police came and took away the children… So far away from the freedom that we have to meet and worship! We used the challenge cards to pray into some of the stories of persecuted Christians and then thought about how we could use our freedom to help them. Before you could say ‘funky trainers’ there were green shoelaces everywhere and the Networker forms were going like hot cakes!

These guys raised a fantastic £54.12 that night – that’s the equivalent of 27 new Bibles for children in China. We’re looking forward to a bunch of new Networkers too – keep those forms coming in!

I want to become a Networker!
Gimme some shoelaces!

Most of us there had been teased or perhaps even dumped by a friend for our faith, but when we compared our experiences to those of Christians in other countries, they were totally different. None of us had ever been put in prison for our faith, or been scared to come to youth group because the secret police might turn up. We watched a video about Sunday school children in China who had experienced both those things. One of the children was even caned at school for attending Sunday school. What a challenge to our faith! These young children had gone to prison rather than deny Jesus. It was inspiring.

The experience of those children highlights the freedom that we have in this country. We’ve got a responsibility to exercise that freedom, and so we looked at ways to do that. Several people were challenged to become Networkers, and there were green laces everywhere as APC took the Walk In Their Shoes campaign to heart!

We love to visit your youth groups, hang out with you all and share about the Persecuted Church. If you want us to drop by, chip an email to mary-anns@opendoorsuk.org and let’s get you in the diary!

I want to know more about Networkers!
How can I walk in their shoes?

Five months of creative arts and compassion and we’ve seen God’s blessing poured out beyond our wildest expectations. Each musician has come with their own story about God’s work in their lives, and he has woven Hope Academy from the threads of each individual story. Together these stories make a harmony praising God, telling of his faithfulness and pleading for his suffering church.

Open Doors’ Eddie Lyle says, “Over the last weeks, the Hope Academy finalists have been finding their voice – not only because they’ve been preparing for the London final, but because they’ve been getting a grasp of the world within which our persecuted brothers and sisters exist. We want you to find out how you can add your voice to theirs to give a shout out for the Persecuted Church – and that’s why being at the final could be unforgettable.”

Each and every person who auditioned for Hope Academy chose to use their freedom to speak out for the Persecuted Church using the creative arts. Will you use your freedom and add your voice to theirs?

Come and listen – come and vote – come and see God move.

Tickets are £10 or £5 for concessions, and groups of 8 or more go half price. Click here to order yours now!

Yep, all the training and all the fundraising paid off, and Daz finally got to run the London Marathon. Here’s what he says about it:

What an amazing day – so so so good!

The atmosphere – the experience – the pain – all beautiful!

I finished in 4hrs 5 mins and 34 seconds!

Really pleased with that!

So…thanks so much for your support – I’ll be collecting soon – when my legs relax and the bruise on my toe disappears – nearly fell down the stairs this morning!

Thanks!

Peace and love

Darren

Massive thanks to Darren for his commitment and perseverance! He’s raised a staggering £1541.71 for the real people around the world who suffer torture or even death for the sake of Jesus. That’s enough to buy an incredible 770 children’s Bibles for China, or to fund 6 whole youth camps. How awesome is that!

Feeling challenged? Why don’t you think about what you could do to raise money for the Persecuted Church? How about taking the challenge to Walk In Their Shoes and doing a sponsored run or walk round your local area? Maybe you could wear the shoelaces and carry a picture of a persecuted Christian whose story has particularly touched you. You could get together a group of people from your church and ask your youth worker or a few parents to help out. Don’t fancy walking or running? Why not Cycle, Swim or Row In Their Shoes?? Or if you’re not sporty but you feel inspired to do something, have a look at the fundraising section for some ideas. Take the challenge and use whatever gifts you have!

Not donated yet? You can still give to Darren’s marathon effort online at http://www.justgiving.com/darrenallwright for another 87 days!

When Sarah was 13, she came to know Jesus. She had an experience like Saul on the road to Damascus – a really dramatic conversion where she became God’s, heart and soul. She loved to read her Bible and pray and get to know this awesome God.

One night, she was chatting to God as usual before bed and he told her to pray. “There’s a lady who’s just gone into prison,” God said, “and she’s lonely. You need to pray for her.”

So she did. Each night, God would tell Sarah how this lady was feeling – whether she was cold, tired, hungry, sad, lonely – and tell her to pray about it. Soon after this, Sarah heard of Open Doors for the first time, and looked through the prayer list. There were so many people to pray for that she just stuck a pen in the list and decided to pray for whoever that landed on.

It landed on a lady called Anna, who was in psychiatric hospital because the government in her country said she must be mad for being a Christian. Sarah continued to pray for her until she was released. All through this time, she kept a diary of what the Lord was telling her.

One spring, Sarah went to a Christian festival and saw an Open Doors stand, so she went over the have a look at the literature. On the stand was the story of this lady Anna and her experiences in the psychiatric hospital. Sarah looked at the story of Anna and the events that she’d written in her diary, and they matched. Anna had gone into prison on exactly the day that God had told Sarah to start praying.

Since then, Sarah has been committed to praying for Christians across the world who are persecuted. She’s spent hours on the phone to churches asking them to take part in SHOCKWAVE, put loads of time into researching prayer points for different countries and getting her youth group to pray, and given away book after book on how God works in the lives of the persecuted.

It’s a little while now since she was 13, and Sarah now has children of her own, but she’s just as staunch a supporter as ever. She reminds me a bit of the Olympic torch: God set her alight at an earlier stage on her journey, and she’s been burning brightly for him ever since, setting many others alight along the way. The best thing is, any attempt to put out her light has just failed, unlike the real Olympic torch!

Knowing the Lord Jesus while we’re young is such a huge privilege. It might not feel like you have much power or influence as a young person, but actually there’s this slightly weird quote that says ‘the child is the father of the man’. Before you start trying to work that one out biologically, think about it. Some of the things that we experience and care about when we’re young affect us deeply for our whole life. If we step out on the journey with God while we’re young, God can set many others alight through us and keep us burning for a bright lifetime. 60% of the Persecuted Church are young people, and here on this site we talk about their Christlike example all the time. I wonder if anyone sat and talked about my Christlike example while I was at school?

Whatever flame you have now, let it shine out and trust God to make it grow!

Funny what gets you thinking. It’s probably quite sad that a bunch of jelly beans made me start considering this, but what does it actually mean to be free? Here at underground we talk a lot about ‘using your freedom’ – it’s a major part of our response to the news that our brothers and sisters are suffering for our common faith. It’s not like they choose to suffer, after all. God chooses who suffers when, how much and why, and that’s not something I pretend to understand. What I do understand is this: if God plans things in our lives for our good, then we need to use the easy times as well as endure the hard times.

Now, as all you essay-writers will know, you have to back up your arguments. Where am I getting this from in the Bible? Well, there’s one main place, that famous verse in Romans:

He knows us far better than we know ourselves…That’s why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good. (Romans 8:28, The Message)

So, sat here at my warm desk (my laptop’s been on for a while), full of jelly beans and a short drive away from my house, I’m thinking that I’ve got it pretty good. God’s chosen to put me in the place that I live and given me the friends and family and stuff that I have. So why has he chosen to let some rejoice and others suffer?

I guess part of the clue is in what we do with what we’ve got. Sat here at my desk, typing away with my headphones in, I could be planning my summer holiday or chatting to some talent on MSN and no-one would know. Except that someone might notice that the blog post hadn’t been updated, and start asking questions. (The blank expression and drooling might give it away, too.) So, even though no-one’s actually standing behind my desk watching what I’m doing, I’m accountable for how I use my time.

It’s kind of like that with how we live our lives, too. If we’re Christians, the Holy Spirit lives in our hearts, and so he goes everywhere with us and sees everything we do – and don’t do. Even if I did waste my time chatting and surfing instead of doing my work and no-one else noticed, God would see me. In my experience, he’s a patient God who doesn’t rain down thunderbolts for every little laziness, but he does hold us to account. That laziness would come back on me at some point, and I’d deserve it, for abusing the freedom I’m given to organise my own time.

So what does this have to do with jelly beans and suffering? Well, I reckon that God doesn’t do stuff without a motive. When you suffer, you learn to rely on God and be close to him in a way that you just can’t do when life is easy. Persecuted Christians often have this incredible closeness with God that we’d really love. Those who suffer for Jesus gain something special in relationship with him. In the same way, it’s great to be happy and healthy and enjoy life, and we learn a lot about God’s goodness that way too. So, like the Bible verse above says, every detail is worked into something good.

But we need each other. If I’m having a rough time and my friends are too busy enjoying themselves to take care of me, that makes them pretty rubbish friends. And if I’m having such a blast that I fail to take notice of what’s going on with others, that makes me dead selfish. God gives us different experiences at different times so that we can learn different things, but then he gives us each other to lean on and learn from.

So while I’m free, healthy, sheltered, and have money to spare, I need to share that with those who don’t have it. And I sure hope that, if I’m down on my luck, I’ll be able to rely on people who are free, sheltered and have money to spare to help me out in their turn. When I have jelly beans, I can share with people who don’t have them. It’s my right – my freedom. Ever thought about that? You have freedom to give. Imagine not having that freedom, and being too poor to buy a birthday present for the person you love most in the world. You know just what they’d like, but you can’t afford it. You won’t see the smile on their face as they open it, or the feeling of getting them just what they wanted.

So go on, share those jelly beans. Pray for the persecuted and ask for the love of Jesus to strengthen them. Wander around with green shoelaces round your wrist as a symbol of standing with the suffering. Save your pennies to ease the material needs of Christians who’ve had their homes burned and businesses taken away.

Feel free.