It doesn’t matter that things are difficult. God is with us

vietnamese Christian

OK - so we’re beginning to change gear in our homework to try to help us connect what we’ve been looking at through the Scriptures over the last few weeks with our own experience of discipleship. How do we make sense of the question of persecution in the context of a liberal, secular society? What would you think if you heard a specialist in global persecution suggest that within 5 years a ‘westeern’ country could make it onto the Open Doors World Watch list?

Ron Boyd-MacMillan was the guy who did a lot of the research for the world watch list, and has been a writer for Open Doors. He has spent many years studying the phenomena of Christian persecution in many different social, political and cultural contexts. Here he is spending some time reflecting on Secularism and its laying slow seige to the Church in the West.

and this week’s story of a martyr:

Susianty Tinulele was shot dead while speaking from the pulpit of her Church in Central Sulawesi, in Palu, Indonesia, Sunday 18th July 2004. Four masked intruders opened fire with machine guns on the preacher and worship team. Susianty was shot in the head and died instantly. Four teenagers were also hospitalised with serious injuries and another 17 year-old died.

Susianty was a victim of what appears to havve been a campaign to assassinate Christian leaders in a campaign that started in November 2003. When police arrested suspected members of militant group Jemaah Islamiyahm they found detailed descriptions of church services and lists of Christian leaders.

Violence was also directed against Sulawesi Christians who were not Church leaders. The night before Susianty’s death, Mrs. Helmy Tombiling died from nine stab wounds to her chest and stomach inflicted by attackers outside her home in Poso, Central Sulawesi.