How Would You Live?

The question is, "How would you live for Christ if you knew that your life was in danger each and every day as a result of your faith?" The following story comes from the International Mission Board

RICHMOND, Va. --Believers in Gaza are mourning the loss of a Baptist leader killed this past weekend. It is believed he died for taking a stand for his faith. Rami Ayyad, 29, a prominent member of Gaza Baptist Church and manager of a Christian bookstore owned by the Palestinian Bible Society, was kidnapped Oct. 6 shortly after closing. His body was found the following day about a mile from the store. No one has claimed responsibility for his death. He had been shot twice and struck with a blunt object. Ayyad leaves behind a wife, Pauline, who is pregnant with their third child, and two children under the age of 3. Hundreds of fellow Christians gathered Oct. 7 for his funeral. He was buried next to his father.
Please pray for Ayyad's family and all believers in Gaza.

stay off the paved road ... --craig

THE PERSECUTED CHURCH ... I feel very strongly about the need to get the word out concerning the persecuted church. I encourage you to get informed. You should also get involved by assisting those who are helping the persecuted church around the world. Check out the websites below. Much of this information comes from www.OpenDoorsUSA.org.

In recent decades the Church has grown so rapidly in the non-Western world that today more than 70 percent of the Church now lives outside the West. Many Christians are in nations with poor human rights, weak rule of law, and limited freedoms.

Some 200 million Christians live under the dark shadow of persecution, daily risking – and regularly suffering – imprisonment, enslavement, violence or death on account of their allegiance to Jesus. A further 400 million Christians live with discrimination and non-trivial restrictions on religious liberty that create considerable hardships such as poverty and homelessness.

Christians are systematically discriminated against and often violently persecuted all through Communist East Asia. They are afflicted too throughout the Muslim world, where Islamic (Sharia) Law prohibits Christian witness, mandates death for apostates (i.e., those who leave Islam) and subjugates Christians to second-class status.

Other countries where governments repress the Gospel and systematically persecute Christians include: Belarus, states in India ruled by the Hindu nationalist party, China, Eritrea, Iran, Laos, Maldives, North Korea, the Islamic states in Northern Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Vietnam...

Religious fundamentalists and nationalists violently persecute Christians with a high degree of impunity and appeasement in: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka...

Get informed and get involved. Check out ...
www.OpenDoorsUSA.org
www.idop.org
www.martyredchurch.net
www.persecution.org
www.savedarfur.com

GO where HE sends you no matter the COST... Craig

THE INTERNATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER ...for the persecuted church will be observed Sunday, November 13. In a related story, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice named eight countries this week as the world's worst violators of religious liberty. In doing so she stated, “The United States has stood for the values of human decency, of a government that respects the religious freedoms of its people, that respects the individual rights of its people, for its entire history," she said. "And let me just be very clear. We hold . . . those values today as strongly as we ever have."

The State Department's seventh annual report on religious freedom listed the same eight countries that it did last year as the most egregious violators, or "countries of particular concern." They are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Vietnam.

All citizens are greatly affected but children are the most innocent victims. I am uncertain of the source, but I recently read a piece that listed the following "rights of a child."

Rights of Children
The right to affection, love and understanding.
The right to adequate nutrition and medical care.
The right to protection against all forms of neglect, cruelty, and exploitation.
The right to free education and full opportunity for play and recreation.
The right to a name and a nationality.
The right to special care of handicapped.
The right to be among the first to receive relief in times of disaster.
The right to be brought up in the spirit of universal peace and brotherhood.
The right to learn to be useful members of society and to develop individual abilities.
The right to enjoy these rights regardless of race, color, sex, religion, national or social origin.

There is a West Africa Proverb that states, "When it rains, we all prosper. When there is drought, we all suffer." As it relates to children the proverb might be restated. "When it rains, children do not prosper as much. When there is drought, children suffer more."

Let us defend God's very precious gifts, no matter the cost. --Craig