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February 2008 10/40 Window Prayer Focus: Persecution Intensifies Against Iraqi Christians, Who Are Threatened With “Extinction”

Intercessors are needed to step up their prayers for Iraq as persecution has intensified against Iraqi Christians, who are being threatened with “extinction.”

Two car bombs exploded outside churches in quick succession in the northern Iraq city of Kirkuk on Wednesday, January 9, 2008 in the latest in a wave of attacks on Christian buildings, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.

Police said the attacks, within two minutes of each other, caused damage to buildings, cars and surrounding houses but no injuries. The bombings come after seven bombs were set off at Catholic churches and church-run institutions in Baghdad and the main northern Iraqi city of Mosul on Sunday, January 6, 2008, which wounded four people and damaged buildings, AFP reported.

Those attacks came on the day many Iraqi Christians celebrate either Epiphany or Christmas Eve based on some Eastern liturgical calendars, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

Police told AFP that the first car bomb exploded in the afternoon of January 9 outside the Cathedral of Kirkuk, a Chaldean Christian building in the center of the city. It was followed two minutes later by a car bomb blast outside the Assyrian Christian Maar Afram church, located less than a mile away, AFP reported.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki told the Vatican’s ambassador to Iraq, Monsignor Francis Assisi Chullikatt, that his government is committed to ensuring the safety of Christians following the attacks in Mosul.

“The Iraqi government is anxious to ensure the safety of Iraqi Christians,” Maliki told the ambassador at a meeting in Baghdad.

On Monday, January 7, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI expressed concern for Christians in Iraq in his annual speech to Vatican diplomats. Reconciliation in Iraq is “urgently needed,” he said.

“Terrorist attacks, threats and violence continue, especially against the Christian community,” the pontiff said, AFP reported.

Iraq is ranked No. 21 on the 2007 Open Doors “World Watch List” of nations that persecute Christians the worst.

The bombings were the first such attacks against Christians in Kirkuk, AsiaNews reported. The city’s Christians had been living in peace, relatively unaffected by the threats of violence that have troubled the Christian minority elsewhere in Iraq, AsiaNews noted.

However, Christian Solidarity International (CSI) foresees the possible “extinction” of the Christian community in Iraq.

“I received in Iraq accounts of a devastating wave of bombings, beheadings, kidnappings, death threats, vandalism and discrimination against Christians in Iraq, who are persecuted by their own countrymen―Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish extremists,” said John Eibner, CEO of Christian Solidarity International (USA).

As a result of this persecution, approximately half of Iraqi Christians―400,000―have fled the country since 2003, according to CSI, which has launched “Save Iraqi Christians,” a movement calling for greater action against the crisis facing Christians in Iraq. Many of those who remain in Iraq are internally displaced. Prior to the fall of Saddam Hussein, Christians made up approximately three percent of the country’s population.

Meanwhile, pastors and Christian leaders from all over Iraq came together on Sunday, December 2, 2007 to have a National Day of Prayer for their country.

“There has been a growing prayer movement in Iraq over the last few years,” an Iraqi Christian leader wrote in an e-mail received by Window International Network (WIN). “In 2005, the first National Prayer Conference in Iraq’s history was held―around 640 Iraqis from 17 different churches attended from across the country. This was a significant event, as it brought together Believers from almost every existing church and denomination in Iraq.

“Six hundred seventy Iraqis from 23 churches attended the second National Prayer Conference in 2006, followed by the third conference this past September 2007, which 604 Iraqis attended from 24 churches and a number of house churches, despite the many challenges involved in traveling across the country,” the leader added.
 
“We praise God for the awesome work He is doing in and through His Church in this country. Still, our brothers and sisters there need our prayers and to see a breakthrough in their nation on every level,” the leader continued.

Intercessors around the world can be equipped to pray for Iraq by participating in WIN’s Praying Through The Window (PTTW) 9, a two-year strategic global prayer initiative that launchedOctober 1, 2007 and targets on Global Terrorism and World Religions along with the lawless regimes in the 10/40 Window.

To order your Praying Through The Window 9: Global Terrorism and World Religions in the 10/40 Window prayer calendar, visit www.win1040.com/resources

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Sourced: Agence France Presse, AsiaNews, Christian Solidarity International, Christian Solidarity Worldwide, Middle East Concern, Open Doors USA

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PRAYER ALERT: YEMEN

Ali ran as fast as he could from school to his father’s shoe shop. His favorite part of the day had finally arrived! He ignored the growling of his stomach because the qat (pronounced cot), even though it wasn’t food, would soon take the hunger away. His father really should have been spending less money on qat and more on food but, if Ali had to choose between the two, he would rather have qat. You see, Ali was 12 years old, and he was already addicted to this drug.
Addiction to this green, leafy plant is a big problem in Yemen. People chew the leaves like chewing gum, and it makes them feel great and full of energy. It’s so important to the Yemenis that they use much of their land to grow the drug. Even children are allowed to chew it, because their parents believe it helps them to concentrate when they study. At noon the shops close and all activities stop so that shop owners can join in with all the others who gather around to chew. Qat is very addictive, so it is difficult for people to stop chewing. It is dangerous and causes side effects such as hallucinations, anxiousness, and bad dreams.
            Please pray that:
­-           God will break this unhealthy addiction of the Yemenis in the name of Jesus Christ.
-           The Yemenis will find their peace and joy in Him.
-           The land will be used to grow crops for food for the families to eat and to sell. Almost half of all the Yemeni people are very poor.

Prayer by Anna, Age 9
Dear Jesus,
I pray that the Yemenis will find you, and when they do they will realize that qat is bad for them and use more land to grow real food instead of qat.  I pray that you would break their addiction to the drug, by Your Name, and that they will stop chewing and growing qat.  I pray that you would help the Yemenis to realize that You are the only God and not like an idol.  In Jesus’ mighty and powerful name I pray, Amen.

MEMORY VERSE
“For he satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.” (Psalm 107:9 NKJV)

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