(September 30, 2023) Elizabeth Kendal, RLPB, reports…

UGANDA: Another Evangelist Murdered
On Wednesday  September 6 evangelists Philip Bere and Mudenya Sirasi participated in an evangelistic event in Eastern Uganda’s Kituuti town. According to Sirasi, many people accepted Christ, including Muslim women and two young Muslim men. About 7:40pm, as the evangelists travelled home to Katiryo, they were ambushed by Muslims angry about the conversions.

Bere was struck and pulled from the bicycle as Sirasi fell but escaped into a tunnel under a bridge. Captured, Philip Bere (33) was subsequently bashed to death with a large rock. The pastor of Bere’s church told Morning Star News that police in Katiryo, Kibuku District, took statements about the killing and assured him they were searching for the killers. The pastor laments: ‘Our evangelist was killed because of his passion for preaching the good news of Jesus Christ, especially to Muslims.’ Apparently Bere was well-known for his preaching among Muslims in Buseeta, Lwatama, Katiryo and other parts in eastern Uganda. Please pray.

NEPAL: Battle heating up
On September 4 Hindu nationalists attacked a church in Nawalparasi district, in Nepal’s south-western Lumbini Province. Windows were broken and property was vandalised.

It was the seventh attack on a church in two weeks. Footage emerged showing two men, identified as pastors, being violently assaulted and publicly humiliated. Endless political chaos has left many Nepalis deeply disillusioned. Exploiting this, Hindu nationalists are ramping up their calls for the restoration of the Hindu State.

Angered by the rapid growth of Christianity, they are also fuelling sectarian hatred – protesting religious conversions and beef consumption – for political gain. Today there are some 1.34 million Christians in Nepal (4.4 percent of population), mostly Protestant. It is one of the fastest growing churches in the world. The battle for Nepal is heating up! Please pray.

NIGERIA: Terror in Kaduna and Plateau
Militant Muslim Fulani herdsmen, often working in conjunction with Islamic jihadists, continue to attack predominantly Christian villages in Nigeria’s Kaduna and Plateau states. At 7am on Friday September 15 hundreds of militants surrounded Dogon Noma village in predominately Christian Southern Kaduna’s Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA) and shot anybody in sight.

At least 15 Christians were killed and 32 were abducted. Meanwhile, Christian communities in neighbouring Plateau State have been under sustained attack since mid-May from militants estimated to be around 800 in number. Mangu, Barkin Ladi and Riyom LGAs have been most severely affected. There is mass displacement. Most recently, at 8:40pm on Sunday September 10, militants invaded the predominantly Christian community of Kulben in Mangu LGA, killing 10 Christians, wounding others and destroying property. Please pray.

AZERBAIJAN: Imperilled Armenian Christian enclave
At 1pm on Tuesday September 19, Azerbaijan announced that it had launched an ‘anti-terror operation’ in Nagorno-Karabakh (an Armenian Christian enclave inside Turkic Muslim Azerbaijan). Troops have entered the capital, Stepanakert, backed by artillery shelling. Azerbaijan insists the operation will continue until the enclave’s government is dissolved and its armed forces are disbanded.

IRAN: Armenians free to worship, but not in Persian
Worship in Persian (language) or witness to Muslims and you’ll go to jail! Ethnic Armenian Iranian Pastor Joseph Shahbazian was arrested on 30 June 2020 when agents from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps raided his house church gathering in Tehran [RLPB 557 (8 July 2020)]. He was sentenced in June 2022 to 10 years in prison to be followed by two years internal exile for ‘founding or leading an organisation that aims to disrupt national security’.

However, in February 2023 the Supreme Court granted him a retrial and in May his sentence was reduced to two years. Then, on the evening of 13 September, Pastor Shahbazian (59) was summoned to the Evin Prison office and informed that he had been pardoned and was free to leave prison and return to his family, including his first grandchild, born while he was incarcerated. Thank-you Lord!

‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective’ (powerful and effective) James 5:16b.
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Elizabeth Kendal is an international religious liberty analyst and advocate for the persecuted church. To support this ministry visit www.ElizabethKendal.com. Above updates excerpted from RLPB reports.

Elizabeth, an Adjunct Research Fellow at the Arthur Jeffery Centre for the Study of Islam, Melbourne School of Theology, has authored two books: Turn Back the Battle: Isaiah Speaks to Christians Today (Deror Books, Melbourne) which offers a biblical response to persecution and existential threat; and After Saturday Comes Sunday: Understanding the Christian Crisis in the Middle East (Wipf and Stock, Eugene, OR, USA).
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