helpforhomeschoolers
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Please pray for these brothers who are among the persecuted church.
Haile Nayzgi
Location: Eritrea
Arrested: May 2004
Days Imprisoned: 396
During the early morning hours of May 23, 2004, Haile Nayzgi was arrested and taken to Police Station #1 in Asmara. He was the leader of Eritrea’s Full Gospel Church, which is comprised of 120 to 150 house meeting groups. The church groups were closed by government decree at a meeting with a government official on May 15, 2003. At that time the church groups were given an application form for government registration. The Full Gospel Church filled out the form and returned it to the appropriate offices, but no reply was ever received.
Haile is married and has four children. He was previously an accountant with World Evangelical Alliance. He is a former mathematics professor at the University of Asmara. During his incarceration Haile has been refused any personal contact with his family. When family and friends went to take food and clothing to the prison for Haile on August 24, 2004, they were told that he was no longer there. Mr. Nayzgi has been moved to various locations since his arrest, but the actual charges against him have not been released. It has been estimated that over 555 evangelical Christians are in custody for their faith in Eritrea. On January 9, 2005, a wedding rehearsal at a Catholic Church was raided and resulted in the arrest of 25 persons, 17 of whom are women. On the same day, in Barentu, the security police stopped a wedding party on the way to the hotel where the ceremony was to take place. They arrested 67 evangelical Christians, including three pastors.
Than Van Truong
Location: Vietnam
Arrested: June 2004
Days Imprisoned: 385
Vietnamese evangelist Than Van Truong was born in 1949. He served in the North Vietnamese Army for 17 years and retired with a meager disability pension. He married Kim in 1977. They could not earn enough money to support their family, even though they worked hard. In 1994 they decided to move to South Vietnam. However, life did not improve. In June 1995 Truong came to the Lord and was baptized. He read the Bible with great thirst. Soon Kim also accepted the Lord.
Than Van Truong’s voice cannot be silenced. As a result of his outspoken witness for Christ, Truong was arrested and jailed in May of 2003. Than Van Truong continued his mission work in prison and brought many to Christ. During his jail term 17 converts accepted Christ and he was able to teach them some basic gospel doctrine. After 239 days in jail he was released January 20, 2004 in poor health. He was under house arrest and had to report to the Dong Nai provincial police office every two weeks. Still he did not take a rest and continued his ministry visiting from family to family, sharing the gospel and preaching in local house churches.
Because his evangelistic zeal could not be quenched, Truong was arrested on June 3, 2004 as he was on his way to share the gospel. He was sent back to jail where again jail became his mission field and he saw seven more converts come to Christ. Vexed by Truong’s zeal, the authorities committed him to an "asylum for the insane" where he receives injections of dubious drugs but has still managed to see further converts for Christ.
Rhanja Masih
Location: Pakistan
Arrested: May 1998
Days Imprisoned: 2603
Christians comprise only two percent of the population of Pakistan. During a Christian funeral on May 8, 1998, Muslim witnesses say that Rhanja threw a rock at an Islamic sign. Rhanja denies this claim. He has been in prison since his arrest, a victim of Law 295c, blaspheming Mohammed, which normally carries a mandatory death sentence. But on April 26, 2003, Rhanja was sentenced to life in prison and fined 50,000 rupees ($830). Please pray for protection and spiritual strength for Rhanja while he is in prison.
Hani Samir Tawfik
Location: Egypt
Arrested: March 2003
Days Imprisoned: 843
A young Egyptian Christian, 28-year-old Hani Samir Tawfik, has been jailed without charges since March 2003. He has been tortured with electric shocks and beaten. Now he is emotionally disturbed and has lost vision in one eye as a result of his treatment.
He was originally arrested in Saudi Arabia as a spy when it was discovered he was a Christian with a Muslim visa. He remained in jail in Saudi Arabia for about five months before being turned over to Egyptian secret police on June 15, 2002. After two months of “severe mistreatment,” he was set free.
According to his family, he was arrested again in March 2003, when he refused to spy on a Christian pastor known to be ministering among Muslim converts to Christianity. According to Compass Direct, Tawfik was first registered as a political prisoner but was re-classified under criminal statutes in January 2004.
Though lawyers have submitted court objections to Tawfik’s detention without charges, the police have used Emergency Law regulations to re-arrest him every 45 days, minutes after the court orders him released. His Bible was destroyed by authorities as he watched, and he is not allowed to have any Christian materials. Since he has been at Al-Gharbineat prison, his mother has not able to travel to visit him.
Ms Li Ying
Location: China
Arrested: April 2001
Days Imprisoned: 1544
Please pray!
Journalist Li Ying is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for her role in the publication of an underground church magazine in China. She was arrested April 2001 along with 16 others from the South China Church and condemned to death December 2001. Her current sentence was handed down during a retrial ordered by the Hubei Provincial Supreme Court in October 2002. Arrest and imprisonment are not new to this young woman in her early thirties. She has been arrested many times and spent a year in prison in 1996. Li Ying is the niece of Pastor Gong Shengliang, founder of the South China Church, one of the fastest-growing house-church movements in China. Li Ying cannot have a Bible and is forced to work 15 hours each day on materials to be exported out of China. Please pray for this young woman to remain faithful to our Lord. Please share this site with others. Read on to see how God uses the willing.
UPDATE: May 3, 2004
A young brother plans a visit to his sister who lives in China. Prior to his trip while he attends a local house-church fellowship, someone gives him a print-out from Prisoner Alert featuring Li Ying. He carefully hides this paper in one of the books he is taking with him on the trip. He gives the article to his sister during his visit. On the day he gives her the paper, she is attending a gathering of many other house-church sisters. The visitors all decide they want to encourage Li Ying by writing to her. Those from the Hubei area hope to visit her in prison.
Posts: 4684 | From: Southern Black Hills of South Dakota | Registered: Jun 2002
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