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SYRIA – GENOCIDE AGAINST CHRISTIANS HAS BEGUN

In previous World News, we reported that concerns for the safety of Syria’s small Christian community remain, even after Syrian church leaders met with Ahmad al-Sharaa, the head of Syria’s transitional government. The concern centred on the fact that the leading rebel group which ousted the previous Syrian President Assad, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) is a designated terrorist organisation that was previously affiliated to al Qaeda, and that as early as December 2024, al Qaeda had urged the victorious rebels in Syria to turn against “Jews and Crusaders”, a pejorative term for Christians. 
The brutality unfolding in Syria’s minority villages is a descent into barbarism captured in visceral, gut-wrenching videos that defy comprehension. The militants are sweeping through villages in a methodical Hamas-style Israel rampage, going door to door to slaughter and torture anyone they encounter, which is recorded and flaunted with a chilling indifference, that dares the world to look away. It’s estimated that there are as many as 2.1 million Alawites**, 1 million Christians, and 600,000 Druze** at high risk in Syria that need our prayer and intervention. As one commentator stated: “The question is WHO will intervene when the ‘United Nothing’ (UN) remains silent, and no one in the legacy news is talking about this?”
 PLEASE PRAY that *the world will be as outraged by these killings as they were with the killings in Israel and that HTS will be forced to stop this genocide. *Pray for the families and communities that have witnessed and suffered the loss of precious lives.
[**Alawites are a Syrian Shia Sect, a breakaway from main stream Islam (Assad’s family were Alawites). The Druze are  a 10th-century offshoot of Ismailism, a branch of Shiite Islam. Sources: Act for America, and Barnabas Aid.]

CHRISTIANS IN TURKIYE (TURKEY)
A new report shows that anti-Christian hate crimes in Turkiye have doubled since 2021, even though Christians make up less than one percent of the population. The increase in persecution appears to be a response to Christian growth, as the gospel gradually makes inroads across the nation. Pray for Christians facing threats and pray that the gospel will continue to go forth. The eastern half of the country is the least evangelized. [Source: Missionary Network News]  

CHURCH FACING OPPOSITION IN INDONESIA RECEIVES COMMUNITY SUPPORT
Christian Daily International Morning Star News – A church active for two years in Paccerakkang Village (in Indonesia’s South Sulawesi Province) began facing unexpected opposition to proposed construction of a larger worship building this month. The Toraja Christian Church, which has worshipped at a member’s modest home for two years – never having encountered any opposition, applied in May 2024 for a construction permit for a building to accommodate their growth. The church’s application was for a church building permit in a vacant area leading to the City Police Housing Complex, and began without any problem. Local residents supported the church’s building plans. Leaders believed that God had extraordinarily intervened in all the paperwork.
For that reason, leaders of the Church said they did not understand the opposition that appeared on Feb. 4 this year, with a banner placed by unidentified people in the nearby local police housing complex stating, “We, all Muslims in Paccerakkang…….., strongly reject the construction of a church and religious activities in our area forever.” Local residents uninvolved with its installation reportedly took it down later that day.
The head of Biringkanaya Sub-District (one who is appointed to assist in improving the coordination of public services in a village), stated that the banner violates the Indonesian constitution’s guarantee of freedom of religion, and that opposition to the church construction was unacceptable. 
The share of Indonesia’s Muslim-majority population identifying as Christian is 11.43 percent, with the evangelical population estimated at 3.23 percent. Indonesian society has adopted a more conservative Islamic character, resulting in churches involved in evangelistic outreach being targeted by Islamic extremist groups.

INDIAN PASTOR SAWAN SHARES GOSPEL WHILE IMPRISONED
On Dec. 5, 2021, police and members of a radical Hindu organization entered a church in western India and arrested Pastor Sawan and an elder. A Hindu priest had complained that Sawan had tried to convert him to Christianity. Sawan’s wife and four other church members were also detained when they questioned why the men had not been released, leaving Sawan’s 23-year-old son, Samuel, alone to care for his three school-aged siblings.
After 45 days, police released all the Christians except Sawan. The pastor was denied access to a Bible, and when he became ill, he was transferred to a government hospital and chained to his bed. Despite the hardships, Sawan made the best of his time in prison, meditating on memorized Bible verses and sharing the gospel with other prisoners. “I shared the love of Christ and prayed for them,” he said. “I was able to bring four inmates to Christ.” Almost 10 months had passed before Sawan’s sixth request for bail was finally granted, and he is currently at home awaiting trial. [Source: Voice of the Martyrs]

WATER MINISTRY TRANSFORMS AFRICA’S LARGEST SLUM
NAIROBI, Kenya – Hundreds of thousands are crammed into Africa’s largest slum. Known as Kibera, it’s a world where hope is often in short supply. The slum faces extreme poverty and gang violence, while lacking basic necessities like clean water and sanitation, earning its reputation as one of the “darkest, filthiest, and most hopeless places in the world.” A typical ‘house’ here measures only eight by eight feet, and it’s built with mud walls, a corrugated tin roof, and either a dirt or concrete floor. There’s not a bathroom in the home. There’s no kitchen area in the home. It’s basically for sitting and sleeping only. In this darkness, however, a miracle is unfolding as a US Texas-based ministry goes door-to-door, bringing God’s love and life-changing water filters.
Chris Beth, founder of The Bucket Ministry, first stepped into Kibera in 2017. What he saw shook him to his core. “It’s a common scene here for folks to line up with jerry cans just to get water. This ‘drinking’ water travels through pipes which are broken, and contaminated water ends up getting into those pipes. The absence of proper sewage leaves human waste on the streets, which then ends up in the water.” The official statistics say there are 78 latrines in all Kibera serving over 400,000 people. Beth recognized the urgent need for clean water and sent a team of 60 to canvass the slum.
In 2000, The Bucket Ministry began a groundbreaking effort—distributing life-saving water filters to each home here. Beth partnered with a US filter company to distribute plastic buckets, each equipped with a filtration system that makes contaminated water drinkable. One hundred local missionaries, mostly Kibera residents, joined in by installing filters and teaching residents how to maintain them. Missionaries visited every single home here, sharing the gospel. The team shared over half a million discipleship lessons. The spiritual effects rippled across the slum, transforming lives in ways no one expected. “People are testifying, people are leaving crime, they are changing their ways and they have reformed.” [Source: NBN News]

US COURT RULES SCHOOL HAVE A RIGHT TO SQUASH THE RIGHTS OF PARENTS.
Massachusetts parents of a middle school student are hoping to take their case against their child’s school district to the US Supreme Court. That comes after a federal court ruled, they do not have a constitutional right to be informed that their daughter changed her gender identity and name while at school. The court essentially ruled that her school had a right to hide that information from the parents. The 1st US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court’s decision to dismiss a lawsuit by parents of the girl, who challenged the Baird Middle School’s policy of concealing a child’s gender identity and other information from them. The parents had written to the school and told them their daughter was gender-confused and under professional care and that no one was to communicate with her about it, the Daily Signal reports. However, the child told school officials that she considered herself “genderqueer” and said she did not want her parents to know about it.
According to the lawsuit, teachers and other school employees began referring to the 11-year-old girl by a different name and gender identity of the child’s choosing at school. Meanwhile, they used the child’s given name and gender identity when communicating with the parents. They also asked the young girl if her parents were providing her with “appropriate care,” and if she was comfortable discussing issues with the counsellor chosen by her parents. Much of these conversations took place by text, behind closed doors, and in online chat rooms without her parents’ consent. The parents filed a federal lawsuit in 2022 against the school alleging that the school violated their due process rights under the US Constitution’s 14th Amendment. A three-judge panel ruled last week that while parents have a fundamental right to be informed about significant aspects of their child’s life, those rights are limited. It added that the non-disclosure policy adopted by the Ludlow School did “not restrict parental rights in a way courts have recognized as a violation of the guarantees of substantive due process.”
A Parental Rights Campaigner stated: “Parents are losing the ability to direct the upbringing of their child, if they choose to send their children to schools they pay for with their taxes,” she said. “….We must petition the United States Supreme Court to reverse this. [Source: Faithwire]

– compiled by Guido Kettniss