Sudan’s Aerial Bombing Aims At Churches In Nuba Mountains

Things have gotten tough for my Sudanese brethren in Christ Jesus ever since July 9th, 2011 (and I have a feeling that Southern Sudan is facing similar situations). I hope that they stay strong and be bold for their King.
03/30/2012 Sudan (CDN)-After Khartoum denied that it had bombed civilians earlier this month, Sudanese aerial strikes last week were aimed at church buildings and schools in Kauda, South Kordofan state, a humanitarian aid worker said. Antonov airplanes dropped bombs on Thursday and Friday (March 22 and 23), destroying some houses and cattle near the church buildings and schools but causing no casualties, he said.

Humanitarian agencies consider the Islamic government’s targeting of civilians in the Nuba Mountains, which has a large Christian population, an “ethnic cleansing” against non-Arab peoples in the multi-ethnic state, with the added incentive of ridding the area of Christians, he said.

Churches in the Nuba Mountains are holding worship services very early in the morning and late in the evening in order to avoid aerial bombardments that target their churches, he said. Most of the bombings take place during daytime, when visibility is better for pilots of the Russian-made Antonov planes.

Khartoum is actively recruiting more security personnel and sending them to South Kordofan to help kill or arrest Nuba civilians, including Christians, sources said. Islamic government officials consider the various Nuba ethnicities as enemies or “infidels” in their campaign to clear the region of non-Arab races and Christianity.

“These people are doing everything possible to make sure they get rid of Christianity from the Nuba Mountains – churches and church schools are the targets of both the Sudanese Armed Forces and its militias,” the aid worker aid, although mosques have also been targeted.

The Sudanese government has razed 10 church buildings and 17 mosques since fighting broke out last June, according to a report released on March 16 by the Arry Organization for Human Rights and Development. The South Kordofan-based organization reported that the Sudanese Armed Forces and allied militias have destroyed 73 villages and 48 schools.

Civilians in South Kordofan have fled by the thousands since last June. The U.N. Commissioner for Refugees estimates there are 185,000 refugees from South Kordofan and Blue Nile states in South Sudan and Ethiopia. The United Nations estimates the conflict has made refugees of a total of 400,000 people, with 120,000 of them internally displaced within Sudan. Some 300,000 of those who have fled are in danger of starving.

The killing of a Nuba political activist in Khartoum this month has elevated fears of the estimated 120,000 Internally Displaced People from the Nuba Mountains, most of whom are Christians. In early March, Public Order Police shot dead Awdeia Ajabana at her home in the Aldeam area south of Khartoum; she was reportedly arguing with officers who saw her brother drinking alcohol on her family’s front doorsteps and who assaulted him.

A candidate for the National Labour Party in 2010 elections originally from the Nuba Mountains, the 39-year-old Ajabana was likely targeted for her political activity but also for her race as a Nubian woman. Other members of her family also were reportedly shot in the incident(Keep Reading).

Persecution Builds Against Christian T-Shirt Company

Another sign we as American Christians aren't immune from persecution. How long will it be before we face the same sort of persecution over here in America that our European brethren in Christ are facing?

03/30/2012 United States (ONN) - It appears the school district in Lexington Kentucky has decided to join forces with community homosexuals who are angry that a Christian company does not want to do business with them.

The homosexuals accused the company, Hands on Originals, of discrimination after the owners said they would not produce T-shirts for them to wear in the city's upcoming gay pride festival. Now, according to the Associated Press, the Lexington school district has temporarily halted purchases from the company and both the city and University of Kentucky are reconsidering whether to use the company in the future.

On Monday, the Gay and Lesbian Services Organization filed a discrimination complaint with the city's Human Rights Commission.

Hands On Originals co-owner Blaine Adamson issued a statement Monday, saying "it is the prerogative of the company to refuse any order that would endorse positions that conflict with the convictions of the ownership."

That prompted criticism from Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, who said, "People don't have patience for this sort of attitude today(Source)."

Bull’s-Eye Placed On European Christians

We live a brave new world, ladies and gentlemen. Our European brethren in Christ are being persecuted for their faith. Europe has been influenced largely by Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, for the past millenia. Now His European followers are being persecuted in the year 2012. I wonder:
1) How long it will be before the persecution my European brethren in Christ becomes as violent as the persecution my Chinese or Pakistani brethren are facing.
2) How long it will be before me and my fellow American brethren in Christ face the same type of persecution.

In the meantime I pray that European brethren in Christ not compromise their Christian faith, act bravely in the face of persecution, and stay strong.

03/24/2012 EU (The World Net Daily)-A new report finds that Christians are the target of religiously motivated physical attacks, intolerance and discrimination more than the people of any other faith in Europe.
“Statistics show the breadth of the problem: 74 percent of U.K. respondents said that there is more negative discrimination against Christians than people of other faiths, said the Report 2011 by an organization called Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe.

The report said 84 percent of “the strongly increasing vandalism in France is directed against Christian places of worship. In Scotland, 95 percent of religiously motivated violence targets Christians.”
Authored by Gudrun Kugler, whose NGO is found at IntoleranceAgainstChristians.eu, the report highlights attacks on Christians because they are Christian.

“The term ‘intolerance’ refers to the social dimension, the term ‘discrimination’ to the legal. Intolerant and discriminatory behavior results from opposition to individual traits of the Christian faith or moral positions that are intrinsically part of the Christian faith,” the report said. “Intolerant and discriminatory behavior also results from a negative, categorical bias against Christians or Christianity as a whole.

This behavior causes various sectors of society to be used as vehicles of intolerance and discrimination against Christians. Such areas of society include the media or arts (through negative stereotyping or profane exhibitions); on the government level (through a discriminatory law or a biased court verdict); on the political level (exclusion from the public sphere, a resolution of a parliament, etc.). Intolerance and discrimination against Christians is also promulgated in the workplace, academia, and in the private and social sphere.

“‘Christianophobia’ or ‘Christophobia’ as well as ‘anti-Christianism’ are common terms describing the same problem,” the report said.

In Scotland, for example, of 693 charges aggravated by religious prejudice, 2.3 percent targeted Jews and 2.1 percent related to Islam. The rest targeted Catholics and Protestants. In France, 94 percent of vandalism with a religious link “was directed against Christian sites,” the report said.

According to the Christian Institute, some 85 percent of hate crimes in Europe are against Christians.
Kugler said, “We also notice professional restrictions for Christians: a restrictive application of freedom of conscience leads to professions such as magistrates, doctors, nurses and midwives as well as pharmacists slowly closing for Christians.

“It is high time for the public debate to respond to this reality,” Kugler said. “Teachers and parents get into trouble when they disagree with state-defined sexual ethics. Our research shows that only with a more accommodating approach to religion and specifically to Christianity, Europe will live up to its foundational value of freedom.”

The report listed dozens of instances of “Christaphobia” in a number of categories.
Under Freedom of Religion was listed a case involving a monastery in Turkey in which the lands were “expropriated” by the government, a move upheld by that nation’s courts. And in Spain, a glass panel was set up to prevent worshipers from entering the chapel of the University of Valladolid. Officials there told students to “Go away to pray in the field.”

In Germany, a mother served a 43-day jail sentence for refusing to enroll her children in state-mandated explicit sex ed classes, and one member of UK Prime Minister David Cameron’s staff called for a ban on weddings at Christian churches unless they also performed same-sex “marriages.”

Under Freedom of Expression, a French teacher was fired for showing students a video on abortion and talking about French abortion laws. In Poland a therapy conference aiming to help people who struggle with same-sex attraction was refused permission to use Medical School Foundation facilities in Poznan. Postal workers in the U.K. refused to deliver recordings of the New Testament book of Mark after calling it “offensive material.” A Scottish National Party leader, Gordon Wilson, reported a “lynch mob” booted him from the board of the Dundee Citizens Advice Bureau because he supported traditional marriage.

Regarding Freedom of Conscience, foster parents in the U.K. lost their right to provide help to children because they wouldn’t support homosexuality, a pharmacy was vandalized in Germany after the owner declined to sell abortifacients and marriage commissioners in the Netherlands will be given annual evaluations to ensure they pave the way for same-sex “marriage(Keep Reading).”

Vietnam Sentences Christian Pastor To 11 Years For Having Unregistered House Church

03/24/2012 Vietnam (Bikyamasr) - Christian Pastor Nguyen Cong Chinh thought he was helping Vietnam’s Christian community by having a house church. However, the church was not registered with the government and the 43-year-old has been sentenced to 11 years in jail for “disrupting national unity.”

The one-day trial in Gia Lia province has left many questioning the role of faith and Vietnam’s communism. But ultimately, the case, which saw Chinh admit to being in charge of the Mennonite church in the Central Highlands, has left Christians fearful that a backlash, even violence, could become more common.

“11 years in jail because he didn’t register a church that was not hurting anyone? I am shocked,” said Christian woman in Hanoi Pham Nhat, who told Bikyamasr.com she knew people who attended Chinh’s church.

“They always spoke so highly of him and how he was a giving person, so it is wrong that he has to go to jail for his faith,” she added. Chinh, who was arrested in April, was also convicted of handing out anti-government leaflets and “enticing ethnic minorities to commit wrongdoing,” the report said.

In communist Vietnam all churches have to be sanctioned by the state, a system criticized by rights groups.
“The overarching atmosphere for religious freedom in Vietnam is hostile,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director for Human Rights Watch. He called the compulsory registration of religious groups and organisations “a deeply bureaucratic process riddled with pitfalls and Catch 22s.”

For now, the Christian community will have to wait for Nguyen’s release and whether he will receive any form of clemency.

“I really hope so because he is a good man,” added Pham(Source).

Persecuted Church In Shanxi Province Dragged Into Court

03/25/2012 China (ChinaAid) - Linfen Church in Shanxi province, which was the victim of one of the most serious cases of religious persecution in recent years, is being dragged into court in a new round of persecution.

A hearing has been scheduled for April 2 in a case brought against the church by a worker who was owed wages for the construction of the newly built church that was demolished on Sept. 13, 2009 when 400 local police, government officials and hired thugs descended upon the church and clashed with hundreds of the 50,000 members of the Linfen church network who rushed to defend their church. Dozens were severely beaten, and more than 30 were hospitalized with critical injuries.

Five church leaders were sent to labor camps and five were given prison sentences. Last August, brother Li Shuangping was released after serving two years of his labor camp sentence. Since his release, he has played a major role in stabilizing and growing the church. As a result, he has been the target of much harassment.

Recently, the local religious affairs bureau and the police got a construction worker who had participated in the Linfen church construction to bring a case against brother Li for owed wages. The church has acknowledged that an undetermined amount in wages is owed to the worker and has tried to pay him, but the worker has refused to take the payment and insisted on going to court(Source).

Report: 85% Of Hate Crimes In Europe Are Targeted At Christians

The Lord Jesus Christ said that his followers would be hated for His sake (John 15:18-25). Those words are being fulfilled, especially in the continent of Europe.

03/22/2012 Europe (Eurasia Review) - A new report says that 85 percent of hate crimes committed in Europe during 2011 were aimed at Christians. The report, from the Austria-based Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination Against Christians in Europe, summarized incidents ranging from vandalism and insults to the suppression of religious symbols, desecrations, “hate crimes” and religiously motivated violence.

Dr. Gudrun Kugler, director of the observatory, said studies suggest that 85 percent of hate crimes in Europe are directed against Christians.

“It is high time for the public debate to respond to this reality!” Kugler said. In Scotland, 95 percent of religiously motivated violence targets Christians. In France, 84 percent of vandalism is directed against Christian places of worship.

The observatory has also monitored professional restrictions on Christians. A restrictive definition of freedom of conscience means that professions such as magistrates, doctors, nurses, midwives and pharmacists are “slowly closing for Christians.”

Teachers and parents “get into trouble” when they disagree with state-defined sexual ethics, the report said.
One survey in the U.K. indicates popular perception agrees. Seventy-four percent of poll respondents said that there is more negative discrimination against Christians than people of other faiths.

The observatory also noted positive developments.
“We were pleased to note that many who have focused exclusively on third world countries that demonstrated outright persecution, are beginning to notice that the marginalization and restriction of rights and freedoms of Christians in Europe are also of concern and deserves our attention,” Kugler said in the report’s introduction.

Among the highlights for 2011 were a resolution in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe that encouraged public debate on anti-Christian issues and a reassessment of legislation with the potential for negative effects on Christians.

Bishop Veres encouraged religious believers to live their faith.
“(B)elieving in God must not be perceived as a fault or sign of weakness,” he said. “Living and witnessing to one’s own religious creed in respect for the freedom and sensitivity of others can only be beneficial for everyone, believers or non-believers, Christians or non-Christians.”

The bishops of Europe support those whose rights are not respected. Religious freedom is a “valuable good” that continues as a “pillar of peace on our continent,” the bishop said.

Chinese Police Raid House Church In Xinjiang, Detain 70 Christians

My Chinese brethren in Christ are in my prayers, as always.

03/20/2012 China (ChinaAid) - A house church in far west China’s region of Xinjiang that has been meeting for nearly two decades was raided Sunday by police, who took more than 70 Christians into custody.
The incident happened at around 10 p.m. March 18 in a house church in Aral Shehri’s 12th Agricultural Division of the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, in Aksu prefecture. The house church has been meeting for nearly 20 years, and more than 70 Christians were gathered at Pastor He Enjun’s home when suddenly more than 10 policemen and Domestic Security Protection agents burst into the room.

Announcing that the meeting was an “unapproved, illegal meeting,” they “order[ed] an immediate end to the meeting.” After forcing each Christian there to be photographed, they took them to the respective local police stations of their places of employment for questioning. Some were not released for two days.
The police also confiscated the Christian’s Bibles, hymnals, notebooks, Christian education DVDs, and other materials, but refused to provide a receipt for the confiscated items as required by law.

The pastor and his wife who were the hosts of the Sunday meeting were called into the local police station again on Monday night at about 10 p.m. for further questioning. They were threatened by the police, who ordered them to stop holding meetings in their home(Source).

Christians Targeted In Sudan’s ‘Ethnic Cleansing’

03/20/2012 Sudan (CDN)-The “ethnic cleansing” that Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has undertaken against black Africans in the Nuba Mountains is also aimed at ridding the area of Christianity, according to humanitarian workers. By targeting Christians among people who are also adherents of Islam and other faiths in the Nuba Mountains, military force helps the regime in Khartoum to portray the violence as “jihad” to Muslims abroad and thus raise support from Islamic nations, said one humanitarian worker on condition of anonymity.

In South Kordofan state – which lies on Sudan’s border with the newly created nation of South Sudan but is home to sympathizers of the southern military that fought against northern forces during Sudan’s long civil war – Bashir’s military strikes are directed at Muslims as well as Christians, but churches and Christians are especially targeted, he said.

“The ongoing war against Christians and African indigenous people is more of an ‘ethnic cleansing’ in that they kill all black people, including Muslims, but they give specific connotation to the war in targeting Christians to secure funding and support from the Arab and Islamic world by saying this war is a religious war,” he said. “And in so doing, they get huge support from those countries.”

Aerial bombardment killed the five members of the Asaja Dalami Kuku family, which belonged to the Episcopal Church of Sudan, in Umsirdipa in the Nuba Mountains on Feb. 25, the source said. The government in Khartoum is using Antonov airplanes to drop bombs, “coupled with state- sponsored militia targeting churches and Christian families,” said the humanitarian worker.

“The brutal state-sponsored militias are moving from house to house searching for Christian and African indigenous homes as the government continues with air strikes,” he added. The Satellite Sentinel Project has gathered evidence that Antonov aircraft have indiscriminately bombed civilian populations in South Kordofan, although after a recent crash the government has said it will no longer use the planes.

In Kadugli, the capital of South Kordofan, at least four church buildings have been razed and more than 20 Christians killed, he said.

“The Islamic north sees Nuba Christians as infidels who need to be Islamized through Jihad,” the source said. “But the fact of the matter is this war is ethnic cleansing – a religious as well as political war, indeed a complex situation.”

Between June 2011 and March 2012, four church buildings have been destroyed, said another humanitarian worker; they belonged to the Episcopal Church of Sudan, the Roman Catholic Church, the Sudanese Church of Christ and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church(Continue reading).

The Three stages of Jihad

If you've been following this blog lately, you've probably noticed that the our brethren in Christ are receiving persecution from the hands of this religious group: Muslims.

Why are Muslims doing this to our brothers and sisters in Christ? One word: Jihad. This video by my brother in the Lord Jesus Christ will explain the things of Jihad in detail:

If I was you, I would pass this on to other people. So that we could help our persecuted brethren in Muslim lands.

American Teacher killed in Yemen for alleged Christian evangelism

An American working in Yemen was shot and killed in the city of Taiz on Sunday, and a group tied to al-Qaida said it had executed the man because of his "Christian proselytizing."

"We can confirm that a U.S. citizen was tragically killed in Yemen," a State Department spokesman told NBC News. "We condemn this heinous crime in the strongest terms and express our deepest condolences to his family and friends."

The U.S. would not name the victim, citing his family's privacy, and conflicting reports surfaced about his identity. Some sources identified him as a Joel Shrun, or Sharm, and others as Joel Wesley.

 

 

He was in a vehicle when it was fired on by someone on a motorcycle.
A group linked to al-Qaida claimed responsibility. "This operation comes as a response to the campaign of Christian proselytizing that the West has launched against Muslims," an unidentified person said in a text message to journalists, claiming responsibility on behalf of the Ansar al-Sharia (Partisans of Islamic Law).(Keep on reading.)

China House Church Leader Tricked by Police, Put Under 15-Day Detention

3/9/2012 Iran (China Aid) – The leader of a house church in far west China that was raided by authorities on Sunday was lured by police to the police station, taken into custody and given a 15-day administrative detention sentence on Friday, ChinaAid has learned.

Zhong Shuguang, the leader of a house church in the city of Khotan, in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, received a call from police officer Yang Meng at about 4 p.m. Friday notifying him that the police were returning to him the laptop and projector that they had confiscated on Sunday when they raided his church’s Sunday worship service. Following Yang’s instructions, Zhong went to pick up the items at the police station, only to be immediately arrested and told that he was being put under administrative detention for 15 days for “organizing an illegal religious meeting.” He was transferred to the Khotan municipal detention center.

When ChinaAid founder and president Bob Fu heard the news, he sent the following text message to police officer Yang, whose phone number is +86-13779191617:

“Dear Police Officer Yang Meng, I am Pastor Fu Xiqiu, president of China Aid Association in the United States. I was shocked to learn that brother Zhong Shuguang, leader of the Khotan house church, has been administratively detained for 15 days for holding a worship service. We overseas Chinese in the United States and Christians worldwide are all deeply disturbed by this news and make a special appeal to you. He is the leader of an orthodox Christian church, which is well-known the world over. We hope that you will release him for the sake of maintaining overall social stability and freedom of religion(Source).”

Chinese House Church Repeatedly Targeted for Persecution; Members Detained and Sent to Labor Camp

3/9/2012 China (China Aid) – A house church belonging to the China for Christ denomination has been the target of months of attacks from local authorities in the city of Zhuozhou, Hebei province, with church members being illegally detained, interrogated and sent to labor camps simply for attending worship services or other church activities, ChinaAid has learned.

Local authorities have also forcibly confiscated 170,000 yuan ($27,000) of church funds without following any of the required legal procedures. They have also sent people to labor camps and demolished the home where the church was meeting. On the afternoon of Nov 8, 2011, 52 villagers met for worship in the home of fellow villager Wang Jinfeng in Xuyi village, Xuliying, Diawo Township in Zhuozhou.

At about 4:15, about 140 officials from the local police department, the national security bureau, the civil affairs bureau, the religious affairs bureau and other government departments, led by police from the local police station, surrounded the house where the Christians were meeting, then entered the room where the service was being held and ordered all the attendees not to move while they started filming.

A religious affairs bureau official announced that the meeting was an illegal service because it had not been registered with or approved by the government departments supervising religious affairs. He ordered that they end the meeting immediately and submit to an investigation. At the same time, the authorities found a bag under a bed containing 170,000 yuan ($27,000) donated by church members and announced that they were confiscating the funds but refused to give a receipt as required by law for taking the property.

They then took everywhere in the room under guard to a third-floor classroom of the Diaowo high school, where they took down everyone’s personal details and interrogated them. At about 8:20 p.m., they transferred everyone under guard to a first-floor classroom and registered everyone again, then assigned everyone to separate rooms where they were interrogated again but this time with a note taker transcribing the interrogation. Shortly after midnight, they ordered everyone to sign guarantee documents. The detainees were then taken under guard back to the original meeting place, where they were guarded by several village officials and police. Finally, at about 6 a.m., after once again registering everyone, the guards left.

However, Zhang Suhua, Lee Bangrong and Liu Cuiying were taken to the police station where they continued to be held. Four days later, Zhang and Li were released, but Liu continued to be detained. During the time that Liu was in custody, local officials threatened her family daily, saying the house where the church had been meeting had to be demolished. (The house was built on land that belonged to Liu’s sister.)

Finally, at noon on Nov. 15, the seventh day of Liu’s detention, at a time when Liu’s husband, Wang Jinfeng, was not around, the house was torn down by people working for the village Communist Party committee. Liu was released the same afternoon(Source).

Leading China’s Christian Awakening

2/20/2012 China (Wall Street Journal) - The spread of Christianity across China has given many people hope, faith and succor. But the boom has also left churches with a shortage of trained, educated leaders. This imbalance has naturally sparked the birth of a private theological education system, one that could potentially lead to greater religious freedom.

Most Christians in China are Protestant, and this Protestant population has expanded by more than 60% in the last 15 years to 23 million in 2010, according to government estimates. If we include those worshipping outside the official churches, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life estimates Protestants number 58 million.

Beijing attempts to control religious practice, requiring churches to register and overseeing religious education and appointments. But it sanctions fewer than 25 Protestant seminaries and Bible schools, most with fewer than 10 full-time faculty. Students often attend for less than four years, and each school graduates fewer than 200 annually. The shortage of officially trained pastors, among other factors, is drawing converts to house churches, vibrant and informal communities that operate outside the law.

If supply can meet this demand, a whole generation of Chinese Protestants can be schooled in values and ideas over which the Communist Party has little control. The trick then is to make sure there are enough house churches, and more importantly trained pastors, to welcome in new believers.

This isn't going to be easy. As a house-church pastor from southern China puts it, "We are not lacking in people" but "we are lacking in people to become trained." Many house-church pastors have been Christians for fewer than five years themselves. Some haven't attended university, much less studied theology. "They are thrown into a leadership position," he says, something they aren't ready for.

Money is an issue too. Throughout the Cultural Revolution (1967-76), when all forms of religion were publicly attacked, house churches were driven underground and pastors had to work second jobs, if only to preserve an alibi and avoid imprisonment. That history has created a cultural expectation that pastors shouldn't be well-compensated. But that just dissuades potential pastors from investing time and money into training(Source).

Pakistani Police Officer rapes teenage sister in Christ

Muhammad said that his followers could have sex with their female captives:
Forbidden to you are married women, except those whom your right hands possess.
Sura 4:34

Therefore stories like the following shouldn't surprise anyone.

Lahore (AsiaNews) - A 14 year old Christian girl was raped by a policeman with an accomplice, at gin point, while in the next room, bound and gagged, her grandparents felt powerless to intervene. The incident occurred on the night between 7 and 8 March in Sheikhupura district, Punjab province, while around the world events were held to celebrate International Women's Day. Even in Pakistan seminars and meetings were held, even President Asif Ali Zardari, yesterday, signed a law to protect women.

On the evening of March 7, 14 year old Kiran (*), originally from Jaranwala, paid a visit to her grandparents who live in the village of Malowal, in a small house not far from the property of a superintendent of police. On the night Nawaz Wahla, a law enforcement official, along with an accomplice Mehboob, a milkman, jumped the fence and broke into the house. According to the newspaper The Express Tribune reports they tied up the grandparents and repeatedly raped the girl, at gun point.

Once she had escaped, Kiran released the grandparents who have accompanied her to the hospital for medical treatment, however, neither the doctors nor the police wanted to bring relief to the Christian girl, or take action to catch the perpetrators of violence. Only the official opening of the investigation, initiated by a diligent judge allowed the detention of Mehboob - the accomplice - while Nawaz has so far eluded capture........
* The name is fictional to protect the identity of the child(Keep on reading).

Church In China Sees Dozens Come To Christ

The Bible says that the angels rejoice when people swear their allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ:

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
Luke 15:10

So the angels of Heaven must be rejoicing alot because lots of people in China are giving their lives to Jesus Christ as this article shows (and I'm rejoicing too):

03/06/2012 China (ONN) - Ministry reports out of China are mixed. Some report ministry is more open than it's ever been before. Other groups say Christians are oppressed more than ever. We know both are true. We've told you about stories of house churches being closed down and Christians arrested. However, here's a story not at all like that one.

President of China Partners Eric Burklin just returned from China. He says one registered church pastor is seeing many turn to Christ through hotel outreach "by renting a ballroom at a local hotel, and then having each church member bring a non-Christian friend or family member to this special event. They have dancing, plays, and music. At the end, he preached an evangelistic message, and 60 accepted Christ."

Burklin says pastors are using avenues outside the local church to introduce people to Christ. This pastor says he's baptized more than 200 new believers. Many people wonder if this is illegal. Burklin did, too. "I asked this pastor very specifically, 'Isn't this illegal?' He said, 'Well, we didn't ask authorities ahead of time. We just did it. We figured that if they weren't going to say anything, we were just going to do it.'"

China Partner provides training to church leaders in the country. Burklin says the leaders are asking for something controversial -- youth training. It's illegal to evangelize children under 18. "They would have to figure out how they could legally do that. The government is very concerned about not forcing anybody under 18 to make a decision in any religious direction."

Despite that, China Partners is raising money for this new ministry push. Burklin says it's important, especially since many young people who are in their late teens and early 20's are interested in knowing about God(Source).

BBC Boss Says: We’ll Mock Jesus But Not Mohammad

If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.
-John 15:18

02/29/2012 UK (The Christian Institute)-The head of the BBC, Mark Thompson, has admitted that the broadcaster would never mock Mohammed like it mocks Jesus.
He justified the astonishing admission of religious bias by suggesting that mocking Mohammed might have the “emotional force” of “grotesque child pornography”.
But Jesus is fair game because, he said, Christianity has broad shoulders and fewer ties to ethnicity.
Bias
Mr Thompson says the BBC would never have broadcast Jerry Springer The Opera – a controversial musical that mocked Jesus – if its target had been Mohammed. He made the remarks in an interview for a research project at the University of Oxford. Mr Thompson said: “The point is that for a Muslim, a depiction, particularly a comic or demeaning depiction, of the Prophet Mohammed might have the emotional force of a piece of grotesque child pornography.”
Insults

Last year former BBC news anchor Peter Sissons said Christians are “fair game” for insults at the corporation, whilst Muslims must not be offended. Mr Sissons, whose memoirs were serialised in the Daily Mail, said: “Islam must not be offended at any price, although Christians are fair game because they do nothing about it if they are offended(Source).”

U.S Missionaries Injured By Muslim Mob In Bangladesh

I pray that the Lord Jesus Christ will heal my American brethren in Christ and give them boldness to preach the gospel to Muslims and Hindus in Bangladesh.

02/29/2012 Bangladesh (New York Post) - Three American missionaries were injured in northern Bangladesh on Wednesday after their car was attacked by a mob who suspected they were converting Muslims into Christians, police said. Police arrested two teachers and a student from an Islamic seminary in Madarganj, 120 miles (200 kilometers) north of Bangladesh's capital Dhaka, following the attack.

At least 200 angry locals chased the missionaries' car and threw stones at it, leaving three with cuts from broken glass, the district police chief said. The missionaries were part of a group "of seven Presbyterians who were attacked by the Muslim villagers. They have been given first aid and moved to a safer place," Abdur Razzaq told AFP. The US citizens were accompanied by a Bangladeshi Christian convert to assess a piece of land for setting up a church, a school and a hospital to conduct missionary activities in the largely Muslim area, he said(Source).