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Prayer Alert for Belarus

(For the safety and protection of our church leaders in Belarus, it is necessary to remove names and locations from this email.)

 

"After reading this report from Belarus I know that you will join with many others to form a prayer wall around this gospel outreach in (location withheld). We do not have to face this kind of intimidation and harassment personally, but we can join our brothers in the fray through prayer." - RE Howard, General Overseer

 

Greetings! I hope you are doing well. I just want to share with you our latest news.

 

A month ago our church sent to the authorities a letter of request to give us land to build a church building. Then I got a call from the religious department and was told that they are interested to help us with our request.

 

So I went there with enthusiasm expecting to hear some suggestions, but I was shocked by what I received there. They were very rude with me and began to shout at me: “How dare you to ask for such a things?” Then they demanded that I present  documents of our community activities together with the full list of the church members, which is illegal by itself.

On next day I brought them some documents, but I refused to present the list of the believers explaining that this requirement was illegal and violated the rights of the citizens. The reaction of the state official was inadequate. Mr. Name Withheld (the head of the department on the affairs of the religions and nationalities at the City Executive Committee) began yelling at me: “Do you want to go to jail?”

 

I asked why are Evangelical Christians in our town not allowed to rent any building for their meetings. She told me: “What can I do if you are multiplying like kittens?” Mr. Name Withheld, took the liberty to say these statements. After that she told me that soon our church will be given a warning. By the new religious law after two warnings they have the right to liquidate our church registration.

 

I left the office with a heavy heart praying for freedom in our country. Three weeks passed since that conversation and during this time members of our church have received calls from the religious department asking for information about our church. They always start the conversation telling that they are from the religious department and they want to give land to our church. Naturally this is a lie.  I had to warn all my members do not give out any information.

 

I don’t  know what these officials are going to do and what plot they have designed, but I would like to ask you to pray for God’s protection over us. God is in control and by faith one day we will have a church building.

 

Love and blessings,

Overseer of Belarus