AP

UGANDA CHRISTIANS UNDER ATTACK BY ISLAMIST TERRORISTS
Christian communities on Uganda’s western border are vulnerable to attacks by Islamists from the neighbouring Democratic Republic of the Congo. One of the worst was the massacre of 42 believers at a Christian boarding school in June 2023. Most of the dead were pupils. Jihadists also carried out the murders of a white tourist couple and their local guide in October 2023, boasting that they had killed “three Christians”. Plots to bomb churches in Kampala and Butambala district in September and October 2023 were thankfully foiled by police.
PRAY that Christians remain strong and courageous, knowing the Lord will never forsake them (Deuteronomy 31:6). As the Muslim minority seeks to advance the place of sharia (Islamic law) in Ugandan society, pray that Christians will have wisdom about how to respond. [

GIVE THANKS FOR GREATER TOLERANCE TOWARDS CHRISTIANS
Give thanks that the Uzbekistan authorities have become more tolerant towards Christians. In the early decades since its creation in 1991, the country was a repressive place for followers of the Prince of Peace. However, since the 2016 election of President Mirziyoyev, state hostility towards Christian converts from Islam has lessened and their house meetings are no longer targeted by police. The number of converts and the number of churches granted official registration are slowly increasing. Pray that the remaining restrictions will be lifted. Ask that converts will be immoveable in their faith, despite the hostility they face from the Muslim community (1 Corinthians 15:58).

CHRISTIAN TEACHER ACCUSED OF ‘MISGENDERING’ APPEALS TO HIGH COURT IN THE UK
A Maths teacher who lost his job after he had said “well done girls” to a group including the aggrieved pupil, only to apologise a few moments later when he realised the child was among them. He was banned from teaching a year ago by the Teaching Regulation Authority after allegedly misgendering a girl who was using male pronouns. Mr Sutcliffe brought his case to the High Court this week, and his lawyer Michael Phillips argued that it was a breach of Mr Sutcliffe’s rights to find that he was required to use preferred pronouns. Mr Phillips added that Mr Sutcliffe had a right “not to believe gender identity belief”.

Mr Sutcliffe, who said his personal life has come under scrutiny as a result of the case, wrote on X: ‘It is an important day for freedom in the U.K. This perverse decision by the TRA must be overturned.’ The Department for Education, which accepted the TRA’s recommendation to ban Mr Sutcliffe, opposes the appeal bid, arguing it has been brought too late and has ‘no merit’. Government lawyers said Mr Sutcliffe had failed ‘to distinguish between his role as a teacher and his activities as a preacher’.
Campaigning organisation Christian Concern (CC), which is supporting Mr Sutcliffe in his appeal, said that the Government’s draft transgender guidance for schools, published only a few months ago, states that “No teacher or pupil should be compelled to use these preferred pronouns and it should not prevent teachers from referring to children collectively as ‘girls’ or ‘boys,’ even in the presence of a child that has been allowed to change their pronouns.” And yet Mr Sutcliffe has not been re-nstated. [Source: Premier Christian News. It won’t be long before we will see this happening here in Australia, with new guidelines issued by Departments of Education, instructing teachers not to use the terms boys and girls – ed.]

BRINGING CHRIST’S LOVE TO UKRAINE
“This was once the school. It’s all destroyed now. Everything was bombed,” said a Ukrainian Christian when he spoke to our project partner in a village just four miles from the front line. Hundreds of Christians were taking shelter in the few remaining buildings left standing. Ukrainian Christian villagers close to the conflict zones are seeking refuge where they can, having lost everything when they fled their homes. And with the war creating shortages of even the basics, many are facing futures without food, medicine or hope.  Churches and Christian communities are helping as much as they can, but they too are poor and struggling. But thanks to Barnabas supporters, they have renewed hope.
Barnabas Aid. [Source: Barnabas Aid]

CHRISTIANS FACE RE-ARRESTS, ATTACKS IN MYANMAR
Officials released more than 3,300 people from prison, including a Baptist pastor, in mid-April to mark the Buddhist New Year. On the night he was released, police re-arrested the pastor, his wife, and a Christian colleague. It is not an isolated incident. “This re-arresting of innocent people, like this pastor and other Christian leaders, has been a practice they’ve been doing ever since the coup,” Advasncing the Ministries of the Gospel (AMG) International’s Brian Dennett says. “The intent is to cause fear and insecurity among the church congregations and local citizens.”
Junta leaders believe the Christians have power and influence over their villages and congregations. Four days after the Buddhist New Year arrests, Myanmar’s army attacked a Christian-majority village. “[At] two o’clock in the morning, they dropped the bombs, injuring many [and killing] a Sunday school teacher from an AMG church and a child. That teacher’s mother was also injured; [she] lost her leg in the bombing,” Dennett says. “This is the second time they’ve targeted this village since January. They want to show people they have power over your life and that only when the population submits and obeys the government will there be hope for them.”

AND IN THAILAND
AMG and its church partners are supporting a refugee community from Myanmar in Thailand. “We have built homes and a school and are attending to people’s medical needs [through] a clinic. It’s a bustling, busy community,” Dennett says. “One thing we’ve had a particular concern for is all the unaccompanied children and youth. These are kids who have been separated from their families and are living alone in this refugee community,” he continues. “We are trying to expand and build more housing for these kids and a school. We already have one school there, and we need another desperately.” [Source: Mission Network News]

– compiled by Guido Kettniss