Religious Liberty Prayer List – No. 210 – Wed 12 Mar 2003

—————————— SMALL ARMS: KILLING CHRISTIANS ——————————

(Once again, we are diverging slightly from our normal RLP practice: instead of looking at a particular nation or situation this week, we are looking at an almost global issue.)

While the world is presently focused on the very serious issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction, it is important to remember that Christians in hostile regions of the world are killed and maimed in large numbers with easily obtained small arms such as hand guns and grenades. These weapons are either imported illegally, or foreign armies, rogue states or Islamist networks donate them to any willing combatants.

In mid 2000, at the height of the Maluku conflict, the flow of small arms was a serious problem, with weapons being shipped in from Java by the boatload. This issue was raised in RLP 069 (25 June 2000) and we prayed ‘for God to intervene and prevent the shiploads of arms and jihad troops from reaching Maluku’. Only days later, on ’27 June it was reported that the Indonesian Navy had intercepted 10 ships transporting arms to Maluku, including machine guns, knives and poison arrows’ (RLP 070 29 June 2000). Everyone was encouraged to continue praying for the flow of small arms into Maluku to be disrupted.

Small arms are flowing freely wherever there is civil and religious conflict. In north-eastern Congo, seven major mission stations with church complexes were completely razed and evacuated with massive loss of life between September and December 2002. A doctor working there wrote, ‘There are enormous numbers of small arms in the area. Who is paying for these?’

Africa is awash with small arms, primarily in the hands of Islamist militias and their supporters, and tribal militias (many deeply rooted in the occult) and their supporters. Rebel areas of Ivory Coast are flooded with small arms, and the supply of ammunition has been described as ‘unlimited’. No one as yet has been able to prove conclusively who the suppliers are. We do know however that arms are funded or supplied by many Islamist organisations, as well as states or world leaders with ideological and/or financial interests in supporting the conflicts.

Likewise, small arms are freely flowing into Papua (Irian Jaya), sometimes on ‘fishing boats’ from Java, but more usually directly from the Indonesian military, just as in Maluku and Central Sulawesi. Islamists in Southern Philippines also are shipping weapons and ammunition to Islamic militias in Indonesia. Philippines weapons have recently been found in south Sulawesi.

Small arms getting from supplier to conflict zone need to go through dealers and smugglers. If they are being purchased then it must be someone with lots of money paying for them. Let’s pray that God will ‘frustrate the plans of the wicked’ (Psalm 146:9) and disrupt the flow of small arms of mass destruction, especially as persecution of Christians increases across the globe.

PLEASE PRAY SPECIFICALLY FOR

* God to ‘frustrate the plans of the wicked’ (Psalm 146:9), so that illegal small arms do not reach zones of civil or religious conflict; may they be intercepted and seized on land and sea.

* God to ‘frustrate the plans of the wicked’, so that the funds of all kinds of terror networks and violent militias will be frozen.

* Christians to be assured that their weapons are spiritual and not feel compelled to protect themselves with small arms.

* the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), who has authority over all ‘angels, authorities and powers’ (1 Pet 3:22), to bind demonic forces and change the direction of the hearts of violent men and women, away from violence and towards peace and disarmament.

* for peace and disarmament in the conflict hot-spots of Sudan, Ivory Coast, Congo, Eastern Indonesia, Southern Philippines, and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda.

‘For nothing is impossible with God.’ Luke 1:37

SUMMARY TO USE IN BULLETINS UNABLE TO RUN THE WHOLE ARTICLE: ————————————————————

SMALL ARMS ARE KILLING CHRISTIANS

While the world is focused on the very serious issue of Weapons of Mass Destruction, it is important to remember that Christians in hostile regions of the world are killed and maimed in large numbers by small, easily obtained hand guns and grenades. In many places where the proliferation of small arms is a serious problem, Christians are the victims. Africa is awash with smuggled small arms. The ammunition supply of the rebels in Ivory Coast is described as ‘unlimited’. The small arms, that really are weapons of mass destruction in Africa, are supplied by Islamist networks, and states or world leaders with ideological and/or financial interests in supporting the conflicts. Likewise, Eastern Indonesia is flooded with illegal arms smuggled from Southern Philippines or Java on boats, or donated by the Indonesian military. Please ask God to disrupt the flow of arms, for the sake of our suffering brothers and sisters.

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The WEA Religious Liberty Commission sponsors this RL Prayer List to help individuals and groups pray specifically and regularly for religious liberty issues, and in particular to uphold the Church where it is suffering persecution.

RL Prayer is moderated by Ron Clough, a commissioner of the WEA RLC and convenor of the Australian EA RLC.

Elizabeth Kendal researched and authored this message.

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