Persecution of Christians

We have all been reading recently and for several months now story after story of beheadings, executions and just chaos and mayhem in the Middle East at the hands of the so called ISIS group of Islamic terrorists. We have seen Iranians, Americans, Japanese and others executed in horrific ways, photographed and videotaped in a prideful and menacing way. Exactly what they want is not well known, at least not to me, not fully nor completely. No matter how many planes drop bombs and try to stop the growth of this group, it seems that it continues to grow in numbers and support. They are like a bad infectious rash. This week a video surfaced where one of the cells of ISIS, now in Libya, has executed 21 Egyptian Christian men near a beach.

I would like to offer you for your consideration and prayer the comments made this week by The Most Rev. Dr. Mouneer Anis, Archbishop of the Episcopal/Anglican Diocese of Egypt with North Africa and the Horn of Africa. You may read his entire comments and others at http://anglicanink.com/article/archbishop-egypts-statement-libyan-martyrs.

A second site I would like to bring to your attention is by the Christian Aid Mission Society where they report how the Islamic State (ISIS) is having a very different effect among Yazidis, an ethnoreligious community in Iraq that was once inaccessible to native Iraqi missionaries, as members lived reclusively in distant mountains near the border with Turkey. Since Islamic State (ISIS) atrocities drove them from their mountain strongholds last year, however, Yazidis now account for most of the people who have turned to Christ through a local ministry. You may want to read more on this move of Christ at http://www.christianaid.org/News/2015/mir20150205.aspx?SC=MIR.