Sunday, February 16, 2020

'They Came To Kill Him': Christian Persecution Update


"They Came to Kill Him": The Persecution of Christians - 





  • "He was a 15-year-old adolescent. He was so deeply asleep in his bed that he didn't hear any of the noise around him. They thrust the blade of the axe so deeply into his skull, to the point we had to use a hammer to get it out of his head." Many Christians have been displaced by these ongoing attacks and live in "extreme misery," added another local: "This is beyond persecution. It is a dramatic situation, plunging thousands of families into a deplorable humanitarian crisis." — Rebecca, a witness, Barnabas Fund, November 15, 2019, Cameroon.
  • A group of Muslims beat, robbed, and threatened to kill a Christian evangelist if he did not convert to Islam.... [T]he Muslims indicated that they had physical pains and injuries. Fløttum offered to pray for them, they accepted, and he complied. They said they felt better and urged him to go with them and pray for another of their friends who was also suffering from a foot injury.... "They were very nice and I couldn't believe they would deceive me," he later said. They took him to a backyard, pushed him down a cellar staircase, and began to beat and kick him in the face...."While they kept me there, they threatened me and said they would kill me if I did not convert to Islam....I was scared and actually thought they were going to kill me because they said they had a knife and didn't want witnesses." — Idag.no, November 28, 2019, Norway.



Turkey: On November 19, in the streets of the city of Diyarbakir, Korean evangelist Jinwook Kim, 41, was stabbed and later died from his injuries. A 16-year-old Muslim was later arrested. According to the report,
Kim had arrived in Diyarbakir with his family earlier this year and was pastoring a small community of Christians. The assailant stabbed Kim three times: twice in the heart, once in the back. Officials, however, claim that the incident occurred in an effort to steal Kim's phone. Local believers urge the authorities to investigate the incident as an assassination, rather than an attempt at extortion. Kim was married and had one child, although his second is expected to be born in the coming days.... He had lived in Turkey for five years.
"This wasn't just a robbery; they came to kill him," insists another local Christian, who received a death threat the day after this incident:
"We always get threats. A brother prophesied a few days ago that they (the government) are going to kick out these foreigners, and probably kill a few Turkish brothers. They are going to cause chaos. They know that I am trying to spread the Gospel, so they may target me too. This may be a sign."
Ethiopia: "Two Ethiopian pastors have been beheaded in Sebeta, near the capital Addis Ababa, in an outburst of violence against Christians." The attack erupted after a leading Muslim incited his supporters against the government over some supposed infraction against him. The report added that "the situation on the ground has become quite challenging for Christians and many churches have been burnt this year. There is also an unverified report that a group of Christians has been forced out of the majority-Muslim town of Ginir, located 303 miles south-east of the capital."


Nigeria: Muslim Fulani herdsmen continued their raids of murder on Christian communities. Two incidents were especially notable. First, in the early hours of November 14, machete-wielding Muslim raiders hacked to death four Christians as they slept in their bedrooms in Agban village, near Kagoro. All of the victims were farmers and members of the local church. Ten days later, on November 24, Muslim herdsmen attacked Agom, a Christian village, around 4:30 a.m. They hacked an 87-year-old Christian to death with machetes and shot another Christian in the head; he died instantly. Both men, regular churchgoers, had been sleeping in their homes.








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