As noted in the sermon on Sunday, the first Sunday in every November is the annual International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. From our bulletin insert from Open Doors on Sunday:

• Today, over 340 million Christians experience extreme persecution and discrimination for following Jesus— that’s 1 in 8 Christians worldwide.
  
  
• In places like India, extremist mobs often attack Christians. In North Korea, owning a Bible can get your entire family sent to a labor camp. In China, the government tracks Christians and shuts down unauthorized churches. And in places like Iran, it’s illegal to even convert to Christianity.

Please consider praying this week for our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ who are suffering or otherwise living under the constant threat of persecution for bearing witness to Christ.

Here are two detailed, country-specific prayer guides:

• Voice of the Martyrs:
  http://www.persecution.com/globalprayerguide/
  
  
• Open Doors:
  https://resources.opendoorsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/WWL2021_Booklet-digital-1.pdf

For example, look up Turkey in both of the prayer guides and pray for the Christians residing where the Apostle Paul planted some of the first churches, and to whom he wrote Ephesians, Colossians, and Galatians.

I also recommend signing up for a daily email containing prayer concerns from missionaries serving all around the world: https://www.imb.org/prayer-list

Remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body. (Hebrews 13:3)



Blessings in Christ,

Pastor Evan