Pray for the Persecuted Church: Iraq and Iran
Remember them that are in chains, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in that body.
Hebrews 13:3Iraq
Apparently Churches in Iraq are slowly but surely going underground; Sister Olga Yacob, foundress of The Missionaries of the Virgin Mary, and staff at The Newman Center at Boston University, reports that in her home near Kirkuk, faithful Christians must never drive their cars to church in order to avoid identification, and that Mass schedules must be alternated to occur at different times each week, in order to avoid becoming targets.
Iran
Episodes of Christians being tortured by Iranian police are available at The Intercessors Network.
An Iranian convert to Christianity was kidnapped last week from his home in northeastern Iran and stabbed to death, his bleeding body thrown in front of his home a few hours later. Ghorban Tori, 50, was pastoring an independent house church of convert Christians in Gonbad-e-Kavus, a town just east of the Caspian Sea along the Turkmenistan border. Within hours of the November 22 murder, local secret police arrived at the martyred pastor’s home, searching for Bibles and other banned Christian books in the Farsi language. By the end of the following day, the secret police had also raided the houses of all other known Christian believers in the city.
According to one informed Iranian source, during the past eight days representatives of the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) have arrested and severely tortured 10 other Christians in several cities, including Tehran...
Lord Jesus Christ, who stretched our your arms on the hard wood of the Cross, so that the whole world might come within the reach of your saving embrace, so clothe us with your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may draw those who do not know you into your knowledge and love. Amen.
posted by MM at 9:17 PM
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