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The Church of Pentecost has paid the fines of 40 inmates convicted of various crimes and serving in some of Ghana’s prisons.

Chairman of the church’s Prison Ministry, Apostle ADP James Tetteh, made this known during a four-day Re-integration Conference held by the Church of Pentecost Prison Ministry at the Pentecost Convention Center a fortnight ago.

The freed prisoners attended the conference and shared their moments of joy with the participants at the conference. They joined in dancing and singing praises to God.

Explaining the church’s gesture, Apostle James Tetteh said the prison ministry is about sharing the word of God with the prisoners without neglecting their personal needs.

Speaking on the topic, “Doing an effective prison ministry”, he said the church has decided to intensify its efforts in the prisons because many prisons do not have chaplains while false religions and cults are reaching out to prisoners.

“We must therefore get there first,” he charged the participants.

The chairman of the prison ministry said the gospel offers prisoners God’s forgiveness of sins, and also gives inmates new values and perspectives in life. The gospel also offers coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with difficult situations and emotional instabilities.

To this end, he said the church aims to provide legal aid to prisoners and also support their welfare, reformation and rehabilitation.

The conference held from 5- 10 December 2022, also brought together professional counsellors and experts in reformation, rehabilitation, and reintegration who took the Prison Ministry Committee members and other Prison Ministry workers drawn from the various Areas of the church through sessions, so they can appreciate the dynamics involved in relating with prisoners.

The participants held a group discussion on “How to Improve The COP Prison Ministry For Maximum Impact” and “What is your understanding of the offender’s social reintegration process?”

All the ex-convicts went through personal counselling sessions led by Dr Charity Kuwornu.

Intensive prayer sessions were held with the ex-offenders. During the Holy Ghost session led by Ps. Supt. Moses Animah, all 29 of the released inmates present at PCC,  received the baptism in the Holy Spirit to the glory of God.

In an interview session with Pastor Supt. Moses Animah, the Secretary of the Prison Ministry Committee, he explained that the conference was done in pursuance of the (Vision 2023) agenda of the Church of Pentecost aimed at Possessing the Nation, by instilling godly principles in every sphere of society.

The inmates, though isolated from the larger society have not been left out.

The Church has been concerned about their transformation and has made so much investment in that regard.

He expressed appreciation to the Chairman of the Church of Pentecost and the leadership of the Church for the kind gesture as well as the continued love the Church has shown to inmates and the Ghana Prisons Service as a whole.

The Church has already completed of a  state of art two Camp Prisons at Ejura and Nsawam (Ejura and Nsawam Pentecost Reformation Centres) with two at various stages of completion to help reduce overcrowding in the prisons as well as assist in the inmate’s reformation, rehabilitation and reintegration process.

The Secretary of the committee said the conference has shaped the ex-convicts for a successful re-integration into the larger society.

Contacts were made with their families for them to be received with joy as they reunite with them.

Each of the former inmates received an undisclosed amount of financial support to start a business or enterprise as they begin their reintegration.

Apostle James Tetteh took the opportunity to introduce the members of the Prison Ministry Committee. They are

Aps. ADP James Tetteh – Chairman

Ps. Supt. Moses Animah – Secretary

Dns. Mrs Juliana Owusu – Member

Eld. James Nyann

Eld. Richard Amaning

Eld. Augustine Sarpong (PENSOS)

Eld. Kumah Isaac (PU) – Member

Dns Eunice Obeng

Soccer fans around the world know Olivier Giroud for the amazing talent he displays on the pitch. But the French striker’s bold display of his Christian faith off the field is garnering attention too. 

Giroud has played an essential role in the 2022 World Cup, contributing to French victories with his powerful goal-scoring ability. He now holds the record for most goals scored in the history of the French men’s national team. 

While Giroud has been considered one of the most underrated strikers in the world, this year he’s gotten plenty of accolades for helping his team advance to the FIFA World Cup Final where they will play against Argentina led by Lionel Messi on Dec. 18.

But the 36-year-old Frenchman is also a striker for the Lord. Throughout his 12-year soccer career, he has remained outspoken about his faith in Jesus Christ. 

Giroud also sports a daily reminder about his deep Christian faith. Tattooed on his right arm is the famous Bible verse found in Psalms 23: “Dominus regit me et nihil mihi deerit” which translated says “The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,” according to The Mail. 

The soccer forward also told the outlet that every time he scores a goal, he has turned it into a celebration of faith by pointing to the sky to give God the glory. 

“I’m very religious so, at that moment, I just thanked God. I was very grateful to have the opportunity to live my dream. To live every single day for me is a day blessed,” he told The Mail. 

Fans can expect to see him perform that same ritual during the game with Argentina on Sunday morning as Giroud and the French men’s team go for their second World Cup title in four years. 

It’s been more than a month since an American missionary pilot has been detained by Mozambique police on allegations of supporting insurgents in the country. Now his family, friends, and the Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF) are asking Christians around the world to pray for “his safety and swift release.”

Pilot Ryan Koher, 31, was taken into custody by officials in Mozambique while preparing to fly vitamins and other supplies to church-run orphanages in the Cabo Delgado Province. During airport security scans, officials took interest in over-the-counter medications and food preservative supplies that belong to Ambassador Aviation Ltd. (AAL), which is a partner of U.S.-based non-profit MAF, the group reported.

Koher was detained on November 4, along with two South Africans volunteers, on suspicion that their flight was in support of insurgent activity.

He is currently being held in a high-security Mozambique prison, KTVB-TV reports.

“Ryan Koher did nothing wrong,” said MAF President and CEO David Holsten. “His wife and children deserve to have him back home in time for Christmas, and the organization that serves the orphans in northern Mozambique needs the supplies he was trying to deliver when he was wrongly detained.”

“I urge Christians around the world to pray for Ryan’s safety and swift release, and call on those in power both in Mozambique and here in the U.S. to do everything they can to resolve this wrongful detainment,” he added. 

 
As CBN News has reported, Islamic extremists in the country have killed Christians, raided house churches, burned homes, and displaced hundreds of people. Since 2017, more than 6,300 people have been killed and nearly 1 million displaced, the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect reports.

Meanwhile, Koher’s wife, Annabel, can only communicate with him through letters. 

“It seems like it was connected to the location of the flight. It was going up the north where there are insurgents right now there. There have been attacks, but we have been doing work to help the victims of those attacks,” she told KTVB-TV. “We’re not exactly sure where the miscommunication was or the misunderstanding.”

The family moved to Mozambique last December in support of Koher’s work with MAF but had to later relocate to the United States because of security protocols.

However, Ryan continued his work with the mission. 

“Ryan is a caring and gentle individual,” Holsten added. “Over the last couple of years, he and his wife have worked hard to learn the language and culture of Mozambique to better serve those who rely on our service.”

He added, “Understandably, this situation has been very challenging for the family. We fully believe in Ryan’s innocence, and we are all praying that this issue will be resolved very soon with the charges dismissed and Ryan released.”

MAF officials say Koher’s situation is unusual.

“We haven’t seen it at all, and honestly, just detainment like this, it’s a surprise to us,” MAF Chief People Officer Ruth Harrison said. “[The locals] are as puzzled as we are on this, ’cause it doesn’t make sense. It is out of character.” 

“Ryan is a gentle giant,” she added. “We know Ryan is innocent. There is really no reason for him to be held at this point.”

Source: CBN NEWS

KYIV, Ukraine – When the war started and Russian bombs began falling on Kyiv, missionaries Marie and Japhin John had to decide whether to leave the capital.

“We had our bags packed because, it’s just like you are in rush, and there’s a new situation; all of a sudden, you wake up in the morning, you hear the sound of bombs, so you’re in a rush, and you’re like ‘Wow! What is happening here?'” Marie said. 

“It was not an easy decision until we prayed. But once we prayed, it was a very easy decision,” Japhin added.

Japhin is from India. His wife, Marie, is German. Both are missionaries to Ukraine with the group Youth With a Mission.

“Growing up in India, and also doing ministry in India, this was not my first time being in a dangerous situation, in fact, this is the third time,” Japhin said.

They decided to stay because of a commitment to serve the Ukrainian people, despite the very real danger to their lives.

“We are also, like the commitment in marriage, saying, ‘in good and in bad times,’ we are not only here trying to make an impact when times are favorable. And when everyone is leaving, this is the time when we actually need to stay,” Marie told CBN News.

The heart of Kyiv is now a fortress of concrete slabs, sandbags, and metal structures aimed at stopping Russian tanks. Today half the city has already evacuated. The staff of YWAM Kyiv is focused on ministering to those who are still in the city.

Thirty minutes south, Japhin and Marie sprang into action, turning the sprawling YWAM campus into a humanitarian aid hub.

A ministry worker named Natalia and her two sons work in the kitchen making meals for folks in the neighborhood. “It depends on the day, sometimes there are days when we cook for a thousand people, sometimes 500 or 600,” Natalia said.

While driving to deliver supplies, Katarina, a YWAM missionary from Finland, told us, “The only thought that gave me peace was to go back to Ukraine, so that’s why I’m here.”

“I’m not saying that God was the one who forced me to go to the war zone, or it’s somehow that I didn’t have a choice, I had a choice, that was my choice. My choice was to come here, and God opened the door,” she added.

Katarina evacuated just before the war started, but she returned days later. Now she hits the streets of Kyiv delivering food and other aid supplies to those unable to leave their apartments. Each visit ends with a time of prayer. 

While Katarina makes her daily deliveries, an aid worker named David, who normally handles maintenance on the YWAM campus, is making dangerous missions to evacuate people trapped behind Russian lines.

“Every time when I go to these areas I prepare myself that I might not get out of there. I pray every time. I’m not counting, but I’ve evacuated more than 100 people. I just work and work as long as I can, and as long as God allows me to help,” David said.

In another part of campus, Yuliia, who has been with YWAM for five years, is on the phone taking orders from a nearby neonatal hospital. 

Almost every other day, YWAM campuses in Germany and other European countries ship medical supplies to Kyiv for distribution. 

When they’re not handling day-to-day logistics or sorting through all the supplies coming in from around the world, Japhin and Marie visit elderly homes, bringing food and lots of warm hugs.

One elderly woman said, “We are so bored, but the time flies when you are here. It is so tender, it is something for the soul, it is so pleasant, it is wonderful.”

For Japhin, Marie, and others at YWAM, ministering in Ukraine’s war zone is ultimately about fulfilling a commitment to serve.

“I think it’s not so much about handing out food packages or cooking meals or distributing some humanitarian aid, that is not the main thing God has been preparing me for, because everybody can do that,” Marie said. “But the hard thing to do is to do it while you hear the shelling of bombs and while you see continuously on the news, how in your city, not far away from you, a building is burning and people are dying. But I just do it because of love for the country, and because of commitment, to saying I’m not stepping away. If I feed two people or if I help to feed a thousand people a day, maybe in my heart it does not make a difference, because my commitment to God is just the same.”

Source: CBN NEWS

01/07/2022 Nigeria (International Christian Concern) –  The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the ISIS-backed offshoot of Boko Haram, attacked Wultihiya, a predominantly Christian community in Nigeria.

Local sources told SaharaReporters that the attack occurred Thursday without government intervention, forcing residents to flee into the bush. A church, two cars, and several homes were burned down in the attack.

Terrorist groups such as ISWAP have killed tens of thousands of Christians in Nigeria and displaced millions in an attempt to discard western influence and impose strict Islamic Sharia law.

“ISWAP, which split from the mainstream Boko Haram in 2016, has become a dominant group, focusing on military targets and high-profile attacks, including against aid workers,” wrote Sahara Reporters. “The Nigerian army has repeatedly claimed that the insurgency has been largely defeated and frequently underplays any losses.”

Source: International Christian Concern

Ex-porn star Joshua Broome is now a husband, father, and pastor, sharing his journey out of the adult film industry.

Broome opened up this week on his “Counterfeit Culture Podcast” about his relationship with his wife, Hope, who appeared alongside him to talk about their love story.

He discussed how the two met and how Hope, a lifelong Christian, showed him grace and understanding as she learned details about his complicated past.

“[Hope] met me where I was. She extended grace and God started radically moving in my life,” Josh said. “It’s because I gave my life to Jesus so early on in our relationship, and we started growing together.”

One of the most compelling parts of the discussion was when Josh asked Hope how she could move forward so boldly after he revealed his past as a porn star.

“People ask me this so often, and for the longest time, I wasn’t sure what the answer was,” Hope said.

She said a college student said something last year that helped her recognize that God’s goodness was behind her ability to look past Josh’s past.

“[The] student was like, ‘Well, obviously it was the Holy Spirit,’” she recounted, noting that this simple recognition sparked a realization. “And I was like, ‘You are so right.’”

Hope admitted her calm reaction to something so shocking was a bit out of character, but it helped her see an essential reality about God’s love and forgiveness.

“My response was, ‘If God can forgive you, why can’t I?” she said.

Hope said it wasn’t difficult to fall in love with Josh. She never knew him during his time in porn, and most of the build-up at the start of their relationship was predicated upon the everyday issues normal couples face.

“I never knew you as that person,” she told Josh. “We just went through the same things I felt like everybody does.”

There were, of course, some unique challenges along the way. One of the more challenging parts of the journey was the reality that the hundreds and hundreds of videos Josh appeared in are still available on the Internet – and he has no control over it.

Some online bullies and trolls have intentionally sent these to Hope and have tried to harass her with them. But she has learned how to navigate that unfortunate reality.

“It will randomly happen, and I try my best to not dwell on it,” she said. “When it would first happen, it would sit there and linger in my mind.”

Now she deletes, blocks, and ignores.

“I have so many other things that my brain space needs to be holding,” she said. “That is not one of them.”

As for Josh — a Christian pastor who contends with the ongoing existence of this content online — he said he prays it is one day gone. Either way, though, he handles it with grace and reliance on the Lord.

“I pray to God that everything is eradicated off the Internet and that just doesn’t exist anymore,” he said. “That is my prayer, but if that doesn’t happen, I have no choice but to deal with it.”

Source: Faithwire

A Kenyan man identified as Augustine Wanyonyi has been busted for stealing two bibles from a municipal supermarket and his defense is amazing.

He appeared before Milimani Chief Magistrate Susan Shitubi and defended that he developed suicidal thoughts hence wanted to learn more about God and his words which led him to steal the Bibles.

According to him, he had a firm faith that the word of God would break his bondage after State Counsel Alice Mathangani read a police statement in court revealing that he went to Naivas Supermarket on Moi Avenue in Nairobi on Monday, January 30th, around 3:00 pm and stole two bibles and hid it inside his pants.

Reports suggest that he was caught on a CCTV camera on the premises and was arrested after refusing to pay more for the product.

Court documents disclosed that the 30-year-old man developed suicidal thoughts after a fire engulfed his home in the Mukuru Njenga slum.

When asked why he stole two bibles he asserted that he wanted to give one to his wife and use the other.

He said, “I stole the Bible so that I could read, understand and preach the word of God instead of committing suicide due to problems I’m facing”

Source: The Standard

Security agencies in the Democratic Republic of Congo arrested one of Kenya’s most wanted terrorists known for slaughtering Christians Saturday after he was captured by local youngsters, according to reports.

With the Kenyan government offering an $88,000 bounty, Rashid Mohamed Salim was captured by youths while he and two associates were going to South Africa, where he wanted to start a new life, the Kenyan news website Citizen Digital reported. 

Salim, who is university educated, is also known as Chotara and Turki Salim. He was put on the Kenyan Anti-Terror Police radar last November on terrorism charges.

The youngsters handed over Salim to security forces, the persecution watchdog International Christian Concern stated.

“This young man is a great terrorist. He is a very big player in the activities of slaughtering Christians in this part of Beni (Congo),” a source in Beni told the Maryland-based ICC.

“We have been receiving pictures and short films of him cutting the throats of Christians and the police,” the source added. “It is said that he is the one who captures them or has them captured via his telephone by fellow rebels when he is in the process of acting and publishes them as propaganda. He is already an Allied Democratic Forces commander.”

The Islamist rebel group Allied Democratic Forces, based in Uganda, has carried out attacks on civilians and clashed with security forces in Congo’s Nord Kivu and Ituri provinces in recent years, killing hundreds and displacing tens of thousands of people. Those provinces have been under a “state of siege,” according to Amnesty International.  Congo and Uganda launched a joint operation against ADF on Nov. 30. 

As security forces have been unable to prevent Allied Democratic Forces attacks, Uganda announced last month that its soldiers will stay in the DRC for as long as needed to defeat the terrorist group. Since his arrest, videos have emerged of Salim explaining his motivations for carrying out deadly attacks, according to ICC. When speaking of a video showing him beheading a DRC officer, he was quoted as saying that he had been given a machete by the ADF to “behead the government’s soldier that we had captured.”

“They told me to draw attention to all the people of the world that there was Islam in Congo, and they were invited to come and spread the Islamic religion so that Islam can rule the whole world,” he said, according to ICC. “So, I killed the FARDC soldier in the name of Allah.”

ICC reports that Salim was radicalized as a teen at a popular Mosque in Mombasa, Kenya, and is believed to have recruited youth into terror groups in East Africa. He was also believed to have joined the Islamic State insurgency in Mozambique.

It is unclear if Congo will extradite Salim to Kenya.

Salim’s father, Mohamed Rashid, told journalists on Sunday that he had not seen his son since 2020, and the family had no idea of his son’s location. 

“Dealing with the pain of his disappearance was difficult because we did not know about his whereabouts,” Rashid was quoted as saying by Kenyans.co.

“This boy went to the best schools and he performed well. He is a humble boy who loved his religion. We don’t know what got into him until things got to the point where they are now.” He called for his son to be prosecuted in Kenya. 

“My plea to the government is to help bring him to Kenya,” the father said. “He should come to Mombasa so that I see him and check that he is OK then they can do their work. He should be sentenced here.”

Source: Christian Post

January 20, 2022 (International Christian Concern) – Forum 18 recently released a religious freedom survey outlining Kyrgyzstan’s human rights violations. Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution was approved on 11 April 2021, to the detriment of Christians’ individual freedoms. Several of the provisions in this new constitution directly violate human rights standards. Human Rights Watch published its World Report this month and found an overall decline Kyrgyzstan’s human rights record since the constitution was adopted.

Assembly is illegal if the message is not in line with the values of the “people of Kyrgyzstan”. The government has also pushed to quickly change 356 laws that further limit the freedoms of the people. There has not been enough time to properly analyze what effect the law changes will have on the Christian population. Kyrgyzstan’s new Religion Law, pushed through in late 2021, is perhaps most worrisome for Christians. This law will heavily burden religious freedom if adopted in its current state. It requires state permission for congregations to exist and assemble. Additionally, 200 adult members are required to make a congregation official, while smaller congregations are not considered and thus not granted state approval. This was not an issue before since those sympathetic to the plight of the church could be counted among the 200 without actually being members. However, with the new regulations, each member must be a founding member and provide the state with their full name, date of birth, citizenship, place of residence, and passport. Additionally, congregations will not be allowed to register if they do not own a building to meet.

These are only a few measures that will make the lives of the Christians in Kyrgyzstan more difficult and dangerous. The state disregards human rights and cracks down on what they consider “a threat to social stability, interfaith harmony, and public order”. In actuality, Christians cannot meet or worship because of the measures Kyrgyzstan will implement.

For interviews, please contact: press@persecution.org

Source: INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN

In what police called a “terrorist act,” two unidentified men followed a pastor returning home in his car after a Sunday worship service and shot him to death in Pakistan’s northwestern city of Peshawar, which in 2013 was the scene of one of the deadliest attacks on Christians in the country.

The pastor, identified as 75-year-old William Siraj of Shaheed-e-All Saints Church from the Church of Pakistan denomination comprising Methodist and Anglican churches, was shot twice in the abdomen as he and his colleague, identified as Pastor Patrick Naeem, were driving home from church on Sunday.

The shooting occurred near Ring Road in the city’s Gulbahar area, leaving Pastor Siraj dead and Pastor Naeem injured, Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper reported, adding that Naeem had been discharged from the hospital where he was treated for minor injuries. Pastor Siraj’s body had been handed over to his family.

News channels showed emergency services removing the pastor from the car as people chanted “Long live Jesus Christ” while carrying his body on a bed through the streets to a house, according to Reuters.

“We demand justice and protection of Christians from the Government of Pakistan,” tweeted Bishop Azad Marshall from the Church of Pakistan.

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby also responded to the news of the attack. “… We pray for the light of Christ’s justice, hope and peace for our sisters and brothers in the Church of Pakistan,” he wrote on Twitter.

Capital City Police Officer Abbas Ahsan called it a “terror attack” and said, “We are determined to protect minorities.” Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province’s Chief Minister Mahmood Khan offered his condolences to the Christian community and the family of the deceased. 

On Saturday, Pakistan’s interior minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed warned of possible terrorist strikes across the country over the next two months as security agencies had learned about sleeper cells of militant outfits in that region, The Times of India reported.

No one had claimed responsibility for the shooting as of Monday. The country’s northwestern areas bordering Afghanistan have seen a rise in militant attacks on security forces in recent days, many of them claimed by Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, which is close to the Afghan Taliban, Reuters said.

In 2013, at least 81 Christians were killed after two suicide bombers blew themselves up at a church belonging to the Church of Pakistan denomination in Peshawar as hundreds of worshipers were leaving Sunday mass.

About 400 worshipers were exchanging greetings after the service at the 130-year-old All Saints Church when the two bombers, each carrying about 13 pounds of explosives, launched the attack. The walls were pockmarked with ball bearings that had been packed into the bombs to cause maximum carnage in the busy church.

There are about 70,000 Christians in Peshawar. The community accounts for about 2% of the 180 million people in Pakistan.

Muslim minorities, including Shias and Ahmaddiyas, also often face attacks by Sunni terror groups in Pakistan.

Source: Christian Post