NOVEMBER 18 - 21 schools in rural areas where parents are very poor. The schools provide Christian children with knowledge and skills they can use when they grow up to rebuild churches and communities that were shattered by the long civil war with the former North Sudan. They also equip the children to make a financial contribution to their families and improve their quality of life. Pray that the schools will continue to make a difference to the lives of impoverished Christians and that the children will grow up to be strong men and women of God. Monday 18 Pray for Christians in Kenya, who are increasingly vulnerable to attacks from the Somali Islamist group al-Shabaab. On 21 September, militants armed with grenades and rifles attacked the popular Westgate shopping mall in the capital, Nairobi. Many people were taken hostage; at least 62 were killed and more than 170 injured. The attackers separated Muslims from non-Muslims, for example by demanding that the prisoners recite the Muslim confession of faith, so that they could kill the nonMuslims. Al-Shabaab has carried its violence into Kenya in retaliation for Kenyan military operations against them in Somalia; churches have also been attacked and Christian leaders targeted. Pray that the Kenyan authorities will succeed in countering the threat posed to the Christian community by violent Islamism. Tuesday 19 Pray for a young Christian mother in Somalia who has been kidnapped and sexually abused by masked men suspected to belong to al-Shabaab. Shamsa Enow Hussein (28) was abducted outside her home in Bulo Marer on 5 August. Her husband, Mohamed Isse Osman, 6
BARNABAS PRAYER NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2013
heard his wife and two young children screaming as he approached the house. His wife was able to send him a text message that night urging him to leave and saying that the attackers had abused her sexually. He took the children to another town but has received text messages from the kidnappers threatening that they will come for him too. Apostasy from Islam is punishable by death in Somalia, and al-Shabaab enforces the penalty extra-judicially. Pray for Shamsa’s release and for the Lord to defend all Christian converts in Somalia. Wednesday 20 Cry out to the Lord for Afghan converts to Christianity, who face murderous hostility even from their own members of parliament. In July, one Afghan MP drew attention to the evangelistic work being done by the Afghan church in Delhi (India) and said that the Afghan government should press the Indian authorities to provide a list of Afghan converts so they could be punished if they returned home. Another MP called for all converts to be hanged to stop the flow of conversions in India. The media launched a vitriolic campaign against them, showing pictures of Afghan converts and the leader of the Delhi church, calling for his execution. Pray for the safety of all Afghans who have left Islam to follow Christ, both inside and outside the country. Thursday 21 A pastor from Kazakhstan who is being detained for “inflicting serious harm to health” has appealed to the UN for protection against psychiatric abuse by the authorities. Bakhytzhan Kashkumbayev has been held in custody since May following a complaint by a church member’s mother that her daughter had suffered psychological harm after attending his church. The daughter has protested that she is healthy and the pastor is innocent, but the authorities have continued to hold him and have even transferred him to a psychiatric assessment