PLEASE PRAY FOR THE CHRISTIANS IN EGYPT AND SYRIA - TAKEN FROM A FORWARDED EMAIL

CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN SYRIA

The last haven for Christians in Syria is no longer safe. A massacre last week in the Wadi al-Nasara (“Valley of the Christians”) was the first attack on Christians there; it was previously a relatively peaceful area. More than 90,000 Christians have fled to the Wadi to escape danger in other parts of the country.

Most of the 15 Christians shot dead in the attack on 17 August were young people, two of them volunteers with our partners who are distributing aid from Barnabas to Christians in the Wadi. The incident signalled an intensification of the threat to the minority community.

Syrian Christians have long feared a repeat of what happened to their counterparts in Iraq following the US-led invasion of 2003; they were scapegoated by Islamist militants who perceived them as allies of the West because of their Christian faith. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi Christians were forced to flee their homes as Christian communities became the objects of targeted attacks by Islamist militants.

That nightmare is fast becoming a reality in Syria.

TARGETED IN EGYPT

In Egypt, Christians are also being scapegoated, by the Muslim Brotherhood for the ousting of Islamist president Mohammed Morsi at the beginning of July. Attacks against them and their property began immediately after his removal but ratcheted up severely following the dispersal of the Brotherhood’s sit-in protests by the authorities on 14 August; more than 60 churches were torched as well as countless other Christian institutions, homes and businesses.

Reports of further attacks are continuing to come in, with Christians in Minya and Giza said to be especially at risk. The Muslim Brotherhood has reportedly taken over control of Kerdasa, Giza, and has forced all the Christian residents out.

In Deir Mawas, Minya, Islamists destroyed the facilities that supply water to the villages, leaving the residents unable to put out any further fires deliberately started in their properties.

Elsewhere, a Christian taxi driver, Rafaat Aziz Mina, was brutally murdered in Alexandria when Islamists noticed a cross hanging from his rear view mirror. Rafaat, who was in his early 20s, was dragged out of the vehicle, kicked, punched and beaten to death.

PLEASE PRAY:

For wisdom and Godly advice for Western leaders as they respond to events in the Middle East; may their actions help and not harm vulnerable Christian minorities.

For peace, order and stability to be established in Syria and Egypt, and that justice may “roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream” (Amos 5:24). That the Lord will pour out His resources to meet the needs of His people in Syria and Egypt.

For Syrian Christians, especially those who lost loved ones in last week’s massacre in the Wadi al-Nasara, that they will be able to say, “My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour – from violent people you save me.” (2 Samuel 22:3)

For Egyptian Christians affected by the recent Islamist violence, that the Lord will restore church buildings and other properties that have been destroyed and give Christians courage and peace as they live under the continuing threat of attack.