Uganda/Congo
The Lord's Resistance Army's (LRA) has waged a campaign of terror for over 20 years in Uganda. The UN estimates LRA rebels have kidnapped 20,000 children and forcibly conscripted them into military service or the sex industry. Countless others have suffered their fate through merciless killings.
Led by the infamous Joseph Kony, a Catholic altar boy turned warlord, the LRA has specifically targeted the church community and clergy who have given refuge to those fleeing the rebel's brutality. Catholic Archbishop Monsignor Richard Domba reported the LRA hacked 150 to death during the 2008 Christmas service with another 280 massacred over the following days. The Ugandan army reports that most of the church victims were innocent women, children and the elderly.
On 17 January, LRA soldiers raided a crowded church in north-east Congo where believers were praying for an end to LRA terror. The militants hacked and burnt to death reportedly some hundreds of believers. On 20 January, members of the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) in Western Equatorial State, South Sudan, found the bodies of 16 South Sudan civilians who had been abducted by the LRA.
On 22 January the UN reported that the recent LRA violence in north-east Congo had so far left "900 people dead and uprooted 130,000 others, with more than 8,000 Congolese taking refuge in Southern Sudan.." Recently, encouraging signs have surfaced signalling Africa's longest armed conflict may be coming to an end. Kony and his henchmen failed to show up as promised for an October 2008 signing of a peace treaty crafted by Ugandan church and government authorities. In December, Operation Lightning Thunder, a well co-ordinated assemblage of armed forces from Uganda, Congo and the SPLA, began air strikes destroying rebel bases in the vast Garamba national reserve in north-east Congo. Kony and his forces are now fragmented into small regiments in desperate search for food and shelter.
Could this year witness the end to the LRA? Armed with occult powers, the LRA will not be defeated through normal warfare. Only divine power realised through fervent intercession will stop this menace.
Please pray for:
- Humanitarian assistance to reach the survivors of the Christmas week attacks. The UN estimates 70,000 people have been displaced.
- Rebel commanders and soldiers to peacefully surrender and with church support, re-integrate back to civilian life; may Joseph Kony be brought to justice to bring closure to those who have suffered from his evil deeds.
- Divine strength for the Ugandan and Congo church communities; may they demonstrate rejoicing in hope, patience in tribulation and steadfastness in prayer to the fullest degree.
- Pray that the Lord, who is supreme over all powers in heaven and earth, will intervene and end LRA terror for all time.
Sri Lanka
A bill banning 'forcible conversions' will go to the Sri Lankan parliament in February. When it first appeared before the 2004 elections, the bill fuelled an escalation in Buddhist nationalism and persecution of Christians.
If enacted, the 'Bill for the Prohibition of Forcible Conversions' would criminalise any act to convert or attempt to convert a person from one religion to another by the alleged 'use of force, fraud or allurement' - terms so broad the law is open to abuse.
The civil war has sent nationalism soaring and 2009 is an election year. The National Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka comments: "It is our gravest concern that this bill will grant legal sanction for the harassment of religious communities or individuals, and offer convenient tools of harassment for settling personal disputes and grudges, totally unrelated to acts of alleged "forced" conversion.'
Pray for Sri Lankan Christians that they will continue to share God's redemptive love regardless of the outcome of the bill.
Uzbekistan
Throughout 2008, Christians in Uzbekistan faced persecution from the government. This included police raids during church services, harassment, confiscation and destruction of Bibles and other Christian material, arrest and detention of church leaders and members, fines and imprisonment.
Some large registered churches have been closed down. Mass media continue negative coverage of the Protestant churches, resulting in harsher persecution of Christians by society. However, the persecution has also resulted positively in a growing consolidation, unity and mutual help among Christians, as well as stronger prayer and fasting.
Christians in Uzbekistan ask us to pray that they may be 100 percent victorious amidst persecution.
Pray:
- Thank God for the growing unity among Christian leaders;
- That the government will stop its policy of persecuting religious minorities and that the religious freedom granted by its Constitution will become a reality in Uzbekistan.
- That God will bless the lawyers and religious specialists helping the persecuted Christians.
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