#uganda pastor running in church

[mubahood360]

Oil down in Asia after big gains last week - UGNEWS24

Oil down in Asia after big gains last week – UGNEWS24

Singapore, Singapore | AFP | Oil prices were down in Asian trade Monday after big gains last week on signs of a demand revival as some governments ease coronavirus lockdown measures.

US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) was down 2.95 percent to $24.01 a barrel in morning trade.

International benchmark Brent was changing hands at $30.27 a barrel, down 2.26 percent.

Both contracts were up…

[creepingsharia]

“There Was Blood All Over”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, January 2021

by Raymond Ibrahim

The following are among the abuses inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of January, 2021:

Attacks on Churches

USA: Arsonists torched an Armenian church in San Francisco in a spike of anti-Armenian hate crimes believed to have been inspired by Armenia’s recent clash with its Muslim neighbors, Azerbaijan and its Turkish supporter.  According to the Jan. 6 report,

In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, there have been four hate crimes committed against the Armenian community over the last six months including a local Armenian School being vandalized with hateful and racist graffiti, which was followed by an arson attack on St. Gregory Armenian Apostolic Church. There are about 2,500 Armenian-Americans living in the San Francisco Bay Area, so these crimes per capita is a very high number given how small the community is. For a region of the country that prides itself on its progressivism, diversity and acceptance of all cultures, these latest attacks should be a warning sign that hate and violence can rear their ugly heads irrespective of where you may live….  The vandals at the Armenian School in San Francisco spray-painted the colors of the Azerbaijan flag and used threatening language in Azerbaijani. In many ways, these latest hate crimes, coupled with the resurgence of hostilities in the South Caucasus, are a continuation of the Armenian Genocide that is now finding its way to the San Francisco Bay Area.  It is often said that those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. We are clearly seeing these prophetic words come to life for Armenians in the San Francisco Bay Area who have fought for decades for recognition of the Armenian Genocide. As victims of oppression, Armenians see these latest attacks as an extension of Turkey and Azerbaijan’s denial of the 1915 Armenian Genocide and a threat to their very existence.

Sweden: Twice over the course of four days, an 800-year-old church in Stockholm was firebombed.  First, on Sunday, Jan. 24, 2021, several Molotov cocktails were hurled at the twelfth century Spånga church, which is located in a Muslim majority area.  According to the church’s pastor, “the alarm was triggered when a window was smashed and flammable liquid thrown at the front gate and one of the windows. However, the fire was quickly put out by the police, who used a powder extinguisher.”  The same church had been fire-bombed just four days earlier, on Jan. 20, 2021: two explosives were hurled at and smashed through the church windows, and another was lobbed at the church gate.  Moreover, according to one report,

Spånga parish has been subjected to attacks on several previous occasions. In December 2018, an explosive device was detonated in the same parish. No one was convicted for the blast.

Hailing from the 12th century, the Spånga Church is one of the oldest in the Swedish capital. It is located on the outskirts of Tensta and is flanked by Rinkeby, both notorious for their heavy presence of immigrants (about 90 percent of the population)… Both areas are dominated by immigrants from Muslim countries and are formally classified as “particularly vulnerable” (which many consider to be a palatable euphemism for a “no-go zone”) due to failed integration and major problems including unemployment, rampant crime and Islamic extremism.

Attacks against churches have become a familiar sight in Sweden. Last year alone, a number of churches, mostly those in troubled suburban [i.e., heavily Muslim migrant] areas, were subjected to various types of attacks and vandalism, including those in Gottsunda, Uppsala and Rosengård, Malmö.

Philippines:   An Islamic group consisting primarily of teenage Muslims opened fire on a church.  According to the Jan. 8 report,

the Islamic State-linked Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters [BIFF], a terrorist group based in the southern Philippines, attacked a parish church after conducting a raid on the town’s military and police outposts. After a 15-minute firefight, both the church building and a statue of the patron saint bore bullet holes.  Police and military authorities said the BIFF had also plotted to set ablaze Sta. Teresita parish church and the church-run Notre Dame of Dulawan high school in the area. However, their attempt to burn the two church facilities was foiled by policemen and soldiers.

BIFF is an Islamic separatist organization operating in the Philippines; it swore allegiance to the Islamic State in 2014.  Right before the church attack, dozens of gunmen from the Islamic group attacked the local police station and burned a police vehicle parked outside.  The police attack came after two men connected with the group were arrested and is seen as a reprisal attack against police.  Muslim terrorism has been on the rise in the Philippines, the population of which is 86% Christian.   According to the report,

In August [2020], pro-ISIS terrorists blew themselves up in attacks that killed at least 15 people … and injured 80 others in the city of Jolo … in the far south of the country, whose population is majority Roman Catholic.

In 2019, terrorists set off two explosive devices at the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral, also known as the Jolo Cathedral, in the Mindanao region. The attack resulted in approximately 100 injuries and about 20 dead.

In August 2019, pastor Ernesto Javier Estrella of the United Church of Christ in Antipas, Cotabato Province, was shot and killed on the Island of Mindanao.

In June 2018, Catholic priest Richmond Nilo was gunned down in a chapel in Zaragoza town in Nueva Ecija province, at the altar where he was preparing to celebrate mass.

Slaughter of Christians

Pakistan:  The bloated bodies of two Christian sisters, who had long rebuffed the advances of their Muslim employers, were found in a sewer in January 2021. Earlier, on November 26, the sisters, Sajida (28) and Abida (26), who were both married and had children, were reported as missing. The two Muslim men for whom they worked had regularly pressured them to convert to Islam and marry them. Even though the young women “made it clear that they were Christian and married, the men threatened them and kept harassing the sisters.”  Forty days after they were reported missing, on January 4, 2021, their decomposed bodies were discovered. Their Muslim supervisors, during their interrogation, “confessed that they had abducted the sisters,” said Sadija’s husband; “and after keeping them hostage for a few days for satisfying their lust, had slit their throats and thrown their bodies into the drain.” The widower described the families’ ordeal:

When police informed us that they had identified the two bodies as those of our loved ones, it seemed that our entire world had come crumbling down…. I still cannot fathom the site [sic] of seeing my wife’s decomposed body.

Discussing this case, Nasir Saeed, Director of the Centre for Legal Aid Assistance and Settlement in the UK, said,

The killing of Abida and Sajida in such a merciless way is not an isolated case, but the killing, rape and forced conversion of Christian girls have become an everyday matter and the government has denied this and therefore is doing nothing to stop the ongoing persecution of Christians. Unfortunately, such cases happen very often in the country, and nobody pays any attention – even the national media – as Christians are considered inferior and their lives worthless.

Nigeria:  On Jan. 16, Muslim Fulani herdsmen opened fire on and killed Dr. Amos Arijesuyo, pastor of Christ Apostolic Church and a highly respected professor at the Federal University of Technology.  “The university condemns in the strongest terms this senseless attack that has led to the untimely death of an erudite university administrator and counselor par excellence,” the university said in a statement. “Dr. Arijesuyo’s death is a big loss to FUTA, the academic community in Nigeria and beyond. It is a death that should not have happened in the first place…. Our prayers and thoughts are with the wife, children and family members of our departed colleague at this difficult period of unquantifiable grief.”

In the two weeks before this murder, Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 26 more people and wounded three in Christian majority regions.  A separate report appearing in mid-January revealed that “More Christians are murdered for their faith in Nigeria than in any other country.”

Finally, in a speech released in January, Abubakar Shekau, the leader of the Islamic terror group Boko Haram, made clear that, despite Western claims that his organization is motivated by secular interests, religion colors everything. According to the Jan. 28 report, Shekau called on the new Chief of Defense Staff, Lt. General Lucky Irabor, a Christian, to “repent and convert to Islam.”  He also told the new Chief of Army staff, Major General Ibrahim Attahiru, that, by going against Boko Haram, his behavior is “un-Islamic” and “he is no longer regarded as a Muslim.”

Attacks on Apostates and Evangelists

Uganda: A Muslim man beat his 13-week-pregnant wife, causing her to miscarriage, after he learned that she had converted to Christianity.  On Jan. 13, Mansitula Buliro, the 45-year-old woman in question and mother of seven, was preparing for Muslim evening prayers with her husband when she began to have Christian visions.  On the following day she secretly visited a Christian neighbor, prayed with her, and put her faith in Christ. Right before she left, a Muslim man knocked on the Christian neighbor’s door and said, “Mansitula, I thought you were a Muslim—how come I heard prayers mentioning the name of Issa [Jesus]?”  Then, when Mansitula returned home her husband informed her that he had been told that she had become Christian.  “I kept quiet,” Mansitula later explained in an interview:

My husband started slapping and kicking me indiscriminately. I then fell down. He went inside the house and came back with a knife and started cutting my mouth, saying, ‘Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar, Allahu akbar [jihadist slogan “Allah is greater”], I am punishing you to not speak about Yeshua [Jesus] in my house. This is a Muslim home.’

Her screaming caused her two youngest children (six and eight) also to start screaming, prompting neighbors to rush and stop the attack.   “There was blood all over from my mouth,” Mansitula said. “My in-laws arrived, and in their presence my husband pronounced divorce: ‘Today you are no longer my wife. I have divorced you. Leave my house, or I will kill you.’”  A neighbor took her by motorcycle to a nearby hospital.  “I was examined, and they found that my fetus had been affected, and after four days I had a miscarriage….  It is now very difficult to reunite with my family. I am now Christian, and I have decided for Issa’s cause.”

Separately, on Dec. 27, around 7 pm, eight Muslims ambushed and beat Pastor Moses Nabwana and his wife, a mother of eight, as they were walking home from a church function: “They began by beating my husband, hitting him with sticks and blunt objects on the head, the back, his belly and chest,” Naura, his wife, said. “I made a loud alarm, and one of the attackers hit me with blows and a stick that affected my chest, back and broke my hand.”  Christian neighbors rushed to their cries, prompting the assailants to flee.  Due to the severe injuries they sustained, the wife was hospitalized for five days and her husband, Pastor Moses, was hospitalized for several more days.  The assault came after area Muslims learned that an imam had converted to Christianity and joined their church; mosque leaders incited the attack.  On that same night, “area Muslims demolished the roof, windows, doors and other parts of the[ir] church building that has a capacity for 500 people, leaving a heap of broken debris… Chairs, benches, musical instruments, amplifiers and other items were destroyed.”

Then, around 4:30 am on Sunday, Jan. 24, while the pastor was still recovering at the hospital, three Muslims broke into their home, again beating his wife, Naura—who was still recovering from her first beating—as well as two of their eight children.  “I heard loud noises and plates being broken,” Naura recalled. “The children and I woke up.  The attackers had broken the door and entered in. One started strangling me, while another threw one of my daughters outside through the window and broke the skin on her leg.”   The Muslims fled before inflicting more damage once they learned that her brother-in-law and his family were rushing over: “The assailants left behind a Somali sword,” she said, “which I think they possibly had planned to use to rape and then kill me.”  Naura’s 10 year-old daughter suffered a deep cut on her knee, and her 12-year-old daughter suffered an eye injury.  Atop all the injuries she suffered from her first beating, Naura’s neck was injured: “I am still in great pain, and the doctor has recommended that my uterus, which is seriously damaged, needs to be removed,” she said. “This will need a big amount of money.”  According to a church leader who visited Naura and her family in their thatched-roof dwelling the day after the attack, “She is still in pain and needs basic assistance in the absence of the husband, the bread-winner.”

Iran: On Jan. 18, the Islamic Republic’s “morality police” arrested Fatemeh (Mary) Mohammadi, a 22-year-old convert to Christianity and human rights activist, on the accusation that “her trousers were too tight, her headscarf was not correctly adjusted, and [that] she should not be wearing an unbuttoned coat.” This is the third time officials arrest Mary.  She did six months of prison time, after her first arrest, for being a member of a house church—which the regime recently labeled as “enemy groups” belonging to a “Zionist” cult; she also spent a brief time in jail after participating in a peaceful protest in April 2020.   Officials have also pressured her employer, whom she always had a good relationship with, to prevent her from returning to work as a gymnastics instructor; and she was kicked out of her university on the eve of her exams.  Reflecting on her travails, Mary wrote that:

Everything is affected…  Your work, income, social status, identity, mental health, satisfaction with yourself, your life, your place in society, your independence….  And as a woman it’s even harder to remain patient and endure, in a society so opposed to women and femininity, though crying out for them both.

Attacks on Christian ‘Blasphemers’ in Pakistan

Pakistan:  On Jan. 28, hospital employees slapped and beat a Christian nurse who had worked there for nine years, after a Muslim nurse told them that she had said “only Jesus is the true Savior and that Muhammad has no relevance.”  A hospital member recorded and loaded a video of the attack on Tabeeta Nazir Gill, a 42-year-old Catholic gospel singer.  It shows the woman surrounded by a throng of angry Muslims who slap her and demand she “confess your crime in writing.” “I swear to God I haven’t said anything against the prophet [Muhammad],” the Christian woman insists in the video. “They are trying to trap me in a fake charge.”   “Fortunately, someone called the police, and they promptly arrived on the scene and saved her life,” Pastor Eric Sahotra later explained. After questioning the accused, police concluded, based also on the testimony of other co-workers, that “A Muslim colleague made the false accusation due to a personal grudge,” continued the pastor:

Other hospital employees were misled into believing the allegation, so they also attacked Tabeeta….  News of the incident spread quickly through the social media, raising fears of mob violence outside the hospital and other areas.

A Muslim mob later descended on and besieged the police station; this prompted police to register a First Information Report against Gill under Section 295-C of Pakistan’s blasphemy statues—which calls for the maximum death penalty for anyone who verbally insults Islam’s prophet, Muhammad.  Last reported, the woman’s two young children were “in a state of shock since the time they saw the graphic video of their mother’s beating,” said the pastor.  No legal action was taken against the Muslim nurse who fabricated the blasphemy accusation to instigate her coreligionists.   The report adds that,

In Pakistan, false accusations of blasphemy are common and often motivated by personal vendettas or religious hatred. Accusations are highly inflammatory and have the potential to spark mob lynchings, vigilante murders and mass protests. Many of those accused of blasphemy never reach the courtroom; violence has killed 62 accused people since 1990, with few prosecutions.

Separately, hundreds of Muslims descended on the village of a 25-year-old Christian man, and threatened to behead him and torch his and adjoining homes, soon after it became known that he had shared a Facebook post critical of Muhammad.  According to the Jan. 5 report, on first learning that Muslims were angry, Raja Warris apologized, pointing out that he had only shared the post “for academic understanding between Christians and Muslims and did not mean to offend any Muslims.”  The matter seemed to be closed after that; but then, and in the words of Rev. Ayub Gujjar, vice moderator of the Raiwind Diocese of the Church of Pakistan,

[W]e were informed by our congregation members in Charar that a huge mob had gathered in the locality on the call of a cleric affiliated with the extremist religio-political outfit, Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan [TLP], and were demanding the beheading of the catechist.  Fearing violence, hundreds of Christian residents fled their homes while around 400 anti-riot policemen were deployed in the area to thwart violence.

Rev. Gujjar and other Christian leaders rushed to the police station, which was quickly surrounded by Muslims who “chanted slogans against Christians,” prompting police to insist that Warris be handed over.  Police then registered a First Information Report under Section 295-A and Section 298-A of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which call for up to 10 years imprisonment for blasphemers, and then showed it to the mob leaders, at which point they called off the siege and dispersed.  Discussing this incident, Bishop of Raiwind Diocese Azad Marshall said that “Warris is an educated youth who loves to serve God.”  Even so,

Christians especially need to be more careful in sharing content, because any faith-based post could be used to instigate violence against the community…  We need to understand that Islamic religious sentiments run high in our country, therefore it’s important to carefully analyze the content before posting it online.

General Hostility for Christians and Christianity

Pakistan: On Jan. 5, a Muslim man severely beat his Christian employee because he had taken leave to attend a Christmas Day prayer service.   Even though Ansar Masih had compensated for the missed day of work by working on the following Sunday, his manager was abusive.  “When I argued with him, he called four other staffers to teach me a lesson for going to church and arguing with him,” Masih later explained. “They abused Christians for their religious practices and said derogatory words when they came to know that I was busy praying at the church.”  The Christian man sustained several injuries during the assault and was taken to a local hospital.  According to the report, as often happens in such cases,

Police officials and the men that assaulted Masih are now putting pressure on his family to settle the matter out of court. Masih has submitted an application to police regarding the incident, but not action has been taken by officers against Masih’s assailants.

Austria: According to a Jan. 5 report, approximately 40 Muslim migrants rioted and burned down a Christmas tree in Favoriten.  On coming to extinguish the large tree, the fire brigade heard one of the migrants yelling: “A Christmas tree has no place in a Muslim district,” even as the raging mob pelted the emergency service officials with projectiles to screams of “Allahu Akbar.”

Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again and Sword and Scimitar, is a Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Gatestone Institute, a Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and a Judith Rosen Friedman Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.   Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

Watch video below as Ibrahim describes his monthly report.

[phroyd]

“ ... Yet in a phone conversation with Fiona O’Leary, a campaigner against quack medicine who spoke to him while posing as a freelance journalist, Baldwin said he distributed the bleach through churches to “stay under the radar”. ... “

When you draw attention to MMS you run the risk of getting in trouble … That’s why I set it up through the church

“ ... “We don’t want to draw any attention,” he said during the call, a recording of which has been heard by the Guardian. “When you draw attention to MMS you run the risk of getting in trouble with the government or drug companies. You have to do it low key. That’s why I set it up through the church.” ... “

“ ... He added that as a further precaution he uses euphemisms on Facebook, where he raises money through online donations. “I don’t call it MMS, I call it ‘healing water’, to protect myself. They are very sophisticated. Facebook has algorithms that can recognize ‘MMS’.” ... “

Read All

Phroyd

[bishopchrisblog]

Artist Of The Week - Pastor Chris Fun Facts.

Check out our artist of the week's fun facts.

-Chris began his musical career in2003 after joining Hossana Worship Church.

-He has ministered in a number of countries such as Uganda and Tanzania.

-He runs a recording label called Touching Lives Studios.

He has four albums to date namely,

-Shiloh Time,

-Nyasach Elijah,

-Sadaka,

-Niko Bize.

He has one brand new single called Iniema Iwinjori (You Are Worthy Lord)

Check his most recent project here> https://youtu.be/uznxLg-zZRA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/evanglist.chris.98

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ch6oEFlrn9k/?igshid=MDJmNzVkMjY=

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ChrisPa66011142?t=KRSuPtQsp-O53PXDcXPdLg&s=07

TikoTok: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMNT5kpj7/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-J5MRtkr7vr7o8RA9Ji0Ig

#africanmusic #kenyamusic #kenya #artistoftheweek #theveebag #gospelmusic

[carahealstheworld]

15 Things That Surprised Me My First 24 Hours In Uganda

I have now been in Uganda for a day and a half. In that time I have adjusted to the time here, exchanged money, gone shopping and a host of other things. I’m seriously trying to take this bit of time to vacation but I am learning a lot about myself and life in general. Here are the things that surprised me in the first 24 hours of being here:

1. How Quickly I Got Through Immigration- I am here on a tourist visa that is approved for 30 days. I thought there would be some long drawn out process like the ones you see in TV movies and here about from immigrants to the United States. I thought I would be grilled with questions about why I was here for a month on a tourist visa, who I was going to see, where I was staying, and all the medical supplies in my suitcase. The only questions I got were Passport? Visa? Yellow Card? Then they took my picture and sent me on my way. Overall, I was through immigration in 5 minutes or less. 

2. How Quickly I Forgot About Personal Space- Personal space is an American thing. If there are 2 strangers on an elevator, they stand on opposite ends. Two strangers on a bench, sit on opposite ends. Passing someone in public? Give them as much space as possible. Here in Uganda, all of that has gone out the window. It doesn’t bother me to be shoulder to shoulder with everyone else. Even when I’m on my phone. In general, everyone else you’re standing shoulder to should with here is minding their business and not worried about what you’re doing. 

3. Everyone Is A Friend When Everyone Is A Stranger- Since I was traveling alone, I made conversation with anyone who would talk to me. Some of those people were Americans going to other countries in Africa or areas of Uganda. Some of those people were Ugandans from different areas of the country. However, everyone was friendly. Everyone here is also a hugger. I’ve been hugged by many people here including merchants and hotel staff. They are all friends. 

4. That I Need To Learn More World Languages- The very first time that someone spoke to me in a language I didn’t understand, happened here. It was a European gentleman so I believe he thought I was from Africa and spoke to me in French (a lot of African countries speak French or do their schooling in French). I know English. I know a lot of Spanish. I know some Afrikaans (and it is very similar to English). I know very little Arabic. I know pretty much no French but I should probably get a move on it if I want to continue world traveling. The second time someone spoke to me in a language I didn’t understand, it was a security guard. I believe the language was Lugandan but I have no idea. 

5. How Quickly I Lost My Was Of Luxury- Taking a warm shower is a luxury that we often take for granted. We are used to just turning the tap and have warm water. That’s not always the case here. Sometimes water has to be warmed so you have to turn on hot water 10-15 min before you shower. I was somewhere that didn’t have that option. I took a shower anyway. It turned out, I just needed to least the water run a little but. It did eventually get warm but I really didn’t care. 

6. Telemundo...In English-So I’m not really surprised that they have TV in Africa. Nor am I surprised that they have “Junk TV” or Telemundo. However, I was surprised that they have Telemundo in English here. The signs and things on the screen are still in Spanish though. 

7.  The People Of Flint, MI (and any other place in the US with lead infested pipes) Have It More Difficult Than Some Africans- I know this is a VERY strange thing to say but I am a graduate of THEE Social Justice HBCU, Philander Smith College, so I had to mention something about social justice (and issue you a call to action since I never stop serving others). I said this one particularly because I have to brush my teeth with bottled water while I am here. Have you ever brushed your teeth with bottled water? Do you know how difficult that is when you’re used to being able to turn on the tap? I want you to try it for one week. Seven full days. Brush your teeth with bottled water because we often don’t understand what we don’t experience (and if you’re really adventurous don’t use your tap at all for a week--use only bottled water for cooking, cleaning, bathing, brushing, washing clothes, washing hair, etc. Save the receipts and find out how expensive and unrealistic it is to do everyday). Once you have, I want you to contact your senators and representatives in Washington DC. Tell them about your experience and how no Americans should have to live that way. Push them to create legislation to rectify this issue. If you don’t think this works or will work, I encourage you to watch the movie “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha.” It’s in Hindi but there are subtitles in English. You���ll understand after you watch. 

8. There’s No Reason To Fear Foreign Food- When we travel different places or even visit someone’s house who comes from a different culture, we tend to have an inherent fear of unfamiliar food. The benefit of the world being connected (or maybe the benefit of being American) is that you will always find some type of familiar food. I happened to have had eggs, bacon and toast for breakfast and a fried fish burrito bowl (yes I had Mexican food in Africa) for dinner. Don’t fear it. 

9. Most Of The Houses I’ve Seen Here Are Bigger And Nicer Than Mine- I’m not saying that there are not poor people here. I’m not saying that everyone here is rich. I’m also not saying that my family is poor (We’re not rich either so don’t be asking us for money). I’m just saying there are really nice houses here that are bigger than my house in the US. 

10. The Beauty of Simplicity-Most things here are pretty simple. There are some elaborate things but for the most part its simple and beautiful. There’s simple locks. Simple doors. Simple gates with guards. Simply beautiful simplicity. 

11. Police Guns-It wasn’t surprising to me that the police here carry guns. After all, I am American, I haven’t been living under a rock and we have many issues with police use of force and firearms (This isn’t a political statement or my opinion. Look at the numbers compared to other countries of the same or larger size. The numbers tell all). What surprised me was the size of the guns. Police here carry riffles. They have guns the size of their leg at their waist. 

12. There’s Literally Security Everywhere- When my professor came inside the airport to meet me, she had to through a metal detector. That was just to walk inside the airport. She wasn’t coming through security to meet me at my gate or see me through immigration. She was just coming inside the door to walk me to the car to the hotel. It didn’t end there though. We went to the mall as well and also had to go through security. Although it didn’t happen in the first 24 hours, we also had to go through security at church and a fancy hotel we briefly visited. At church and the hotel they also checked the car we were in. 

13. My Adaptability-People have always told me that I am quite adaptable. They say it in letters of recommendation and it even showed up as one of my strengths in Strengths Finder. So why did it surprise me? Because everything became so normalized to me almost immediately. Driving on the left and passing on the right? Normal. Everyone hugging me as if they haven’t seen me in years? Normal. Majority of people looking like me? Normal. I’ve just adapted super quickly and it’s surprised me.

14. The Bugs Here Clap Back- So I will tell the entire story later but for now, I will say that there was something squirming in my room in the shadows. I had no idea if it was a small snake or a bug. It turned out to be a bug and it clapped back when I tried to get it out. It turned in to a huge ordeal. Security and the hotel manager ended up coming to help. 

Number 15 is really for Millennials. I will caution you that there is some censored language in this one because it is in a common phrase. So if you want to stop reading now, I will not be offended. If you do keep reading and later find yourself offended, DO NOT attempt to contact my parents, another elder relative, my pastor or whoever else to discuss your disdain. You. Were. Warned. 

15. I Learned Where The Phrase “Black People S**t” Came From- This one adds a little more comedy to the already comical bug incident that occurred (which I promise to recap). So we’re driving around Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. I’m taking in the sites, the people and the buildings. I’m looking at traffic and people randomly gathering and everything else I was seeing. My literal though was, “This is some black people s**t.” And I mean that in the best way possible. It’s like all the stuff that we do in America that we call “n***a rigged” or “black people s**t” is written in our DNA and has been passed down to us for centuries. I’m serious. I wish you could see my face as I type this and hear me say this. I was literally watching people gather on the side of the street to eat food and party. I promise you they were having a cookout. They have what they call bodabodas (motor bike taxis) here. Y’all know most motorcycles can have 1 driver and 1 passenger. I bet you never seen a whole family ride on one though! I have and bodas are a little smaller than motorcycles. You’d be surprised at how many people can fit on one. Like how some of y’all try to squeeze your entire lineage in the back seat of a car. And the traffic. Y’all! These bodas drive wherever! Get in where you fit in at its finest. They don’t stop for traffic signals. If there’s a space between cars for the to drive in they do. If they have to drive on a side walk they will. It’s just the blackest thing you have ever seen or heard of. Why? These are OUR people. We do black people s**t and think nothing of. 

I hope you keep reading to learn more about my adventures. 

Bug story and pictures coming soon!

Be Blessed!!!!

[nicksayers]

On Monday afternoon I drew David Kisige in Uganda, via Zoom, for my #NickDrawsNationals pandemic art project. We’d been trying for weeks to connect for this session. Internet access has been a big challenge. We tried at his friend’s internet cafe, but it was too patchy. He then travelled to a local hotel, where the wifi was slightly more reliable. We finally managed about an hour of chat and portrait drawing on the hotel balcony, overlooking a garden of date palms. David is a Christian pastor, and is studying for a certificate in theology at church school most days. He has travelled within Africa on Christian missionary work to Tanzania, Congo, Rwanda, Burundi and Kenya. He has a wife and five children aged between five and 19. They all work together on the family farm, growing beans, corn and other vegetable crops. They can’t afford agricultural machinery, so have to use hand tools and hard manual labour. David used to work as a security guard in the capital, Kampala, patrolling around the city and arresting thugs. Then he got a calling from God to devote his life to religion. It took me a while to understand that he contacted me at first about my project because my name is the same as an evangelical Christian from Australia, who debates religious matters online. Sadly, that’s all the conversation we managed while I drew him. His battery ran low, the connection died and he had to save power for the end of the day. On a follow-up call, he showed me the church he’s building with the local community. There were happy children running everywhere, music, drumming, women sharing food, and bricks being made from red earth dug from the ground and fired under piles of wood. He said that Covid lockdown has been devastating for community life: travel between towns is banned, and churches had to close. I really enjoyed meeting and drawing David – he was very friendly and accommodating, and warmly welcomed me to visit Uganda when travel becomes possible again. #nickdrawsneighbours #drawing #portrait #portraitdrawing #portraiture #birodrawing #ballpointpen #ballpointpenart #ballpoint #neighbours #sketching #artinlockdown #artinisolation #isolationart #NickDrawsNationals (at Portslade, West Sussex, United Kingdom) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLul1uhn_qM/?igshid=xetc1r3l6tsm

[newscheckz]

Before we fight each other, we must ask ourselves: does marriages work?4

New Post has been published on https://newscheckz.com/before-we-fight-each-other-we-must-ask-ourselves-does-marriages-work4/

Before we fight each other, we must ask ourselves: does marriages work?4

So many questions arise when it comes to discussions on the institution of marriage. Majority of us, especially the young are asking, do marriages work?

A young man walks us through his journey of marriage at just 21 years and its highs and lows. 

…………………………..continuation of part three.

She didn’t believe that a restaurant interview would be genuine. She also felt like I would use this opportunity to run away from her due to our challenges.”

Lucy says:

I knew men who travelled out of the country and ended up forgetting their families. Some even remarried.

I was very unsure about this ‘new found opportunity’ that was so urgent. I knew I couldn’t stop him, so I gave him my blessing and told him to remember he had a young family that needed him.

2 days later I was on a bus to Kigali. It was by blind faith. Upon reaching Kigali, I worked for this boss for the first month expecting to get some payment that I could send home to my wife and young son. That never happened.

He gave me and the other employees many excuses. I then worked for him for three more months and each end month he would not pay.

Lucy says:

When Robert told me he wasn’t being paid, I was at first unsure whether to believe him. I never understood how he would work and not demand for salary.

I had this feeling he may have been withholding support from us.

Our small studio was struggling and I couldn’t get enough for myself let alone for rent. I had also confirmed prior to him leaving that were expecting a second child.

It was tough fending while at the same time going through a second difficult pregnancy.

PARENTS

Robert had asked me not to involve our parents in the difficult times that he was sure he would

make ends meet. So we kept this information away from them.

TURNING POINT

One time, Robert called me and said he had slept hungry. Realizing my husband had slept hungry hurt me so much that I sent him Kshs 200 (from Nairobi to Kigali) to buy something to eat.

I kept sending every time I would make some money for his own survival. I asked him to return home but he insisted on staying and trying to find work.

At one point he told me he had gotten a house at a kitongoji duni (slum) and he needed Kshs 1,500 to rent. I sent it to him and he got in.

He had also left that job without his dues and was actively looking for other opportunities.

OPPORTUNITIES

Immediately my wife sent me Kssh 1,500, I left that job, and went full throttle looking for opportunities. I was lucky to meet a Ugandan man who gave me my first consultancy contract as a designer and a videographer.

I spent time working with him, learning as fast as possible and supporting the best I could. I learnt how to pitch for business, how to do quotations and how to apply for tenders.

The pay was not as good, but due to the diligence in the work, I got bonuses every time I signed a deal.

Two silver wedding rings linked together

Within no time I had won his trust and he started assigning me major responsibilities including meeting corporate clients.

I put these bonuses together and would send my wife 70% of all the money I made. I trusted her with finances. She is a good caretaker of family resources. She was happy that things had turned out well.

As a good wife, she kept this money in a savings account and when I finally came to Kenya for holidays, she asked that we go for a unique type of shopping, our first ever piece of land, a 50 x 100 in Juja that we paid for in cash.

Back at work, I kept learning and improving my skills and it was at this point I got an opportunity with a new company, this time as a Creative Director. I continued pushing the limits and supporting my team.

The leadership at the new company were very supportive and gave me opportunities to learn Digital Marketing, PR in addition to my video and graphics design roles.

It was during this time that I also joined Mavuno Church in Kigali and started volunteering as a marriage mentor based on my marriage experience. Serving in church brought new opportunities. If I was not at work, I was busy with God’s ministry.

I offered probono design services for church announcements, posters and flyers and run the churches’ social media accounts. All this I did as a way to give back for how graceful God had been to me.

It wasn’t long, till when a member of the church was curious to know who was behind the graphics and the works displayed every Sunday. Our pastor introduced me to him.

I met with this gentleman and after a few lunches, he revealed that he was a Senior Director of Sales and Marketing for a new International Hotel chain that was to open in Kigali.

I remember during those lunches, he just said “I am building a Marketing Team and I would like you to join”.I got excited, as a new opportunity had presented itself.

Without further information, I went through the interview process and in 2016 joined the Hotel’s Chain marketing team. My role involved supporting Marketing for the property as well as other upcoming hotels in Sub Saharan Africa.

This was a great opportunity for me as I had learnt so much throughout the journey and hospitality roles at a 5 star was a blessing. It was during this time that my wife moved with me to Kigali.

For the next 3 years I was in charge of the hotel’s marketing, PR, photography and brand positioning. I was passionate about enriching my skills and widening my understanding of hospitality.

So I spent extra time training in Human Resources. It is at that point those efforts were recognised and I got promoted to a role of Learning and Development manager. I was officially certified soon after as a hospitality trainer at an event in Dubai.

My passion in training gave me an opportunity to volunteer to train young couples in Rwanda on keeping sustainable and strong relationships. Over 4 years, I have mentored over 60 couples in Rwanda alone, dozens in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.

My Own Company

While I did trainings and marketing at the same time, I realized the gap and need in the industry and in late 2019 where my wife and I started our own fully-fledged Marketing Consulting Agency called Halleria Consult. (www.halleriaconsult.com).

Halleria Consult is a corporate communications company offering high-end solutions in digital marketing, social media management, events, branding and graphics, corporate training etc.

Our footprint has been felt in the short time we have been operational as my team consists of talented creatives, marketers, PR, photographer and art Director.

I am also proud to say that “Affecto” brand is our baby. We designed the Affecto corporate logo as our support to the founder’s dream. My wife and I are co-directors of Halleri, a Consult and she is more involved in Business Development while I do the technical part of it.

We have also launched a mentorship program to raise future digital marketers and brand strategists who will make this dream grow.

Interestingly our kids are part of the program. Our 10 year old and 7 year old sons are amateur graphic designers with a lot of interest with 3D animation and photography.

How do we make our marriage work? What exactly have we done and continue to do that is making it work?

Communication is one thing that helps marriages to work. There is nothing so small that you can’t tell or share with your partner.

No matter how simple you think it is, she needs to know. I tell her everything and she does the same.

We don’t keep secrets, we prefer being open to each other. When it comes to finances and running the business, she does the budgets and planning.

I give her my plans and proposals and she allocates money for that. She also runs a Cake business called Qapital Cakes which does different type of pastries.

Lucy is a great wife and a sharp businesswoman, skills she has acquired overtime.

IN-LAWS

Lucy is loved by my family so much and is a close confidant of my mother. My mother, father and her have a special bond that has grown tighter over the years.

They can defend her to the last tooth. My sisters accepted and treat her as one of their own. On the other side, I have a good relationship with my mother and father in law.

Never at any time have they ever interfered with our relationship.

The end.

[rootindiahealthcare]

World Health Organization Declines to Declare the Ebola Outbreak an Emergency for the 3rd Time.

Nearest 1,500 dead, the W.H.O. says the jeopardy of the disease spreading beyond the territory remains low and declaring an emergency could have failed.   Health professionals at the Mpondwe Health Screening Facility center. That is located on Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The outbreaking risk that began in Congo has challenged expectations.

Credit: Isaac Kasamani/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images   Again the third time, the World Health Organization dipped on Friday to declare the Ebola explosion in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency. Though the outbreak expanded this week into neighboring Uganda and ranks as the 2nd deadliest in history.   A specialist panel recommending the W.H.O. advised against it because the danger of the disease spreading beyond the area remained low and declaring a pressure could have backfired. Other nations might have reacted by stopping flights to the country,  restricting travel, or closing borders, steps that could have destroyed Congo’s economy.   Dr. Preben Aavitsland Views Dr. Preben Aavitsland, a health expert at  Norwegian public, who served as the acting chairman role for the emergency committee advising the W.H.O. said there was not significant to be gained but possibly a lot to lose.   At the same time, the expert of the committee of ten infectious diseases told in a statement. It was “deeply distressed” that donor countries have not invested as much money as the W.H.O. and affected populations need to battle the outbreak.   Dr. Jeremy Farrer Statement But remarkable global health experts have demonstrated in recent months that the W.H.O. should declare an emergency to bring the world’s awareness of the Ebola crisis. Dr. Jeremy Farrar told us, (who is the director of the Wellcome Trust.  That is a health foundation based in London)  on Friday that such an announcement would have intensified efforts to control the outbreak.   “It would have increased the levels of international political support and improved diplomatic, public health, logistic efforts, and security,” he said.   Dr. Tedros, Director -General -WHO Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, Director General at the W.H.O. Accepted the committee’s proposal, saying that, even if the outbreak did not suffice the criteria for an emergency declaration.  For the touched families this is very critical an emergency.   Funding for the Battle The W.H.O. has asked $98 million for its rejoinder and it has received only $44 million so far. In a media interview before the declaration, Dr. Tedros told; It had recently got assurances from Britain, the United States, and Germany.   “We’ve never observed an outbreak like this.” He said. “It appeared in a chronic war zone and overlaid with an election that politicized the whole circumstance. Militia attacks kept disrupting the operations; And when that occurs, the virus takes a free ride.   11000 victims died last time More than 2,100 infected patient reported so far. Wherein above 1500 dead. The outbreak gathered in eastern Congo is surpassed only by the 2013-16. And Last time West Africa regions outbreak in which more than 28,000 were total victims and 11000 died.   Unfortunately or can say due to high demand. The supplies of the Ebola vaccine are running under the requirement. Dr. Tedros said, but Merck agreed Thursday to resume its plant and make more supplies. To stretch supplies continuously those arrive in the patients. Doses are being divided. A new Johnson & Johnson vaccine can come in the market anytime. That will be rolled out soon, he told to reporters.

Credit : James Akena/Reuters   The outbreak started in August month and resisted early expectations that it would be born quickly. Its epicenter is a disagreement zone rived with so much fighting that governments and medical foundations trying to help have had to withdraw. There are sometimes with casualties itself.   In the month of March, Doctors Without Boundaries evacuated. its personnel from the epicenter after its hospitals in Katwa.  Butembo were overrun or burned down as their patients disseminated. In April, a W.H.O. An associated doctor working Cameroonians was targeted and killed.   The State Department commanded all American personnel; That is including consultants at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDCP). It has been advised to leave shortly after they arrived last August since of a firefight street and work area to their living quarters.   First Case Noticed @Uganda On Tuesday, the first occurrence outside Congo was discovered in Uganda Nation. That is a five-year-old boy from a small town near the border.   As per the health ministries of  Ugandan and Congolese;  W.H.O. officials and Associated Media reports extracting border officers. That boy was a grandson of a pastor in Congo; who was not feeling well since May. The pastor’s daughter was married to a Ugandan man. She went home to care for her dad, taking her both the sons, first boy ages 5 and second at 3. The pastor expired on May 27. On June 10, many members of the family sprang to returning to Uganda.   The children seemed sick, and when they were halted at a border post. Their temperatures were taken. Kids were put in isolation and told to wait while transferring to an Ebola treatment center was systematized. Instead, 6 members of the family slipped away and crossed on a casual footpath beside the shallow Lubiriha-River, which forms the border but is simply forded.   Only after the pastor’s funeral. It was attended by over 80 people. Lately, It was noticed and confirmed that he had died being a victim of Ebola attack. After the pastor's burial, The Congolese authorities are trying to find each who had attended.   Prevention is in Action Ebola spreads in human fluids, including diarrhea, blood, and dead bodies can teem with live virus. The Congolese health authorities warned their Ugandan counterparts. But the 5-year-old was already hospitalized in Uganda. This was about 15 miles from the border range. Since then, the grandmother and both boys were no more. Experts do not suspect the Ugandan outbreak to spiral out of control.   Uganda is the one a strong central government in African Nationals and a cash-starved but organized health care system. It has continued and beaten 3 previous Ebola outbreaks, in the year of 2000, 2007 and 2012 and now again back.   Time to be more educated to prevent it On Thursday, Ugandan health administrators declared that they had allowed with their Congolese matches to set up more health support at “un-official points of entry” like those utilized by the affected family.   Health workers defeated Agnes Mbambu, the grandmother of the Five-year-old boy who grew Ebola’s first cross-border victim, in Karambi, Uganda; which is near to Congo’s border. Credit:Ronald Kabuubi/Associated Press   Also, with extreme help, Uganda nation has been intensively planning for Ebola to invade from Congo.   “We’d been foreseeing it,” Dr. Tedros told. “It was when not if.”  About 4500 health workers and others who sway come into contact with the affected have been immunized.   Anti-Ebola Awareness Programme Unicef has endured over 14,000 conferences at schools, local worship stations, churches, mosques, taxi stands, bus stops, markets and even funerals point to discuss Ebola prevention and the need to inquire care as soon as symptoms arise.   In eastern Congo; by diversity, the outbreak careered out of control because the region is so lethally changeable. The area is so split off from the capital, Kinshasa. That twenty people were previously dead by the time the appearance of the virus was confirmed in their blood samples.   Distrust of the federal government there is deep and the number of local militias and self-proclaimed rebel soldiers ranges over it. Health workers have been discontinued at informal roadblocks where robbers demand money.   Victims Vaccinated In recent months, specialists have been scared by a quickening in infections, though more than 130,000 victims have been vaccinated. While it took about 8-months to spread the first 1,000 victims cases. It has reaped only a few more to exceed 2,000.   Officials suspect many deaths are getting a place in villages. Where families refuse to bring victims patients relatives in for investigations.   Only a limited over half of the new problems in Congo are in people with known links to previous cases. An indication that contact reproduction, considered necessary to beating an outbreak, has dropped apart. The lethality rate among all known cases is around 66%, But the number of unknown victims cases presents the real number. That is crucial and impossible to calculate. Reference #WHO Press Release #Various News Agencies.     Read the full article

[mubahood360]

Shocking revelation of how a dude was gang raped by her girlfriends at MUBS's Ideal Hostel - UGNEWS24

Shocking revelation of how a dude was gang raped by her girlfriends at MUBS’s Ideal Hostel – UGNEWS24

[ad_1]

In a story run by Campus Cam, the leading University tabloid in Uganda, we have come across some disturbing revelations from a male student at Makerere University Business School only identified as Danny who claims that he was raped by a group of girls at the Nakawa-based Ideal hostel.

The young man revealed via his Twitter handle (@danny100000_) that his life has never been the same and…

[creepingsharia]

“They Shot My Wife in the Head and Cut Our Four Children into Pieces”: Muslim Persecution of Christians, November 2020

Pakistan: Yasmeen and her son, Usman, lay dead and dying from a hail of bullets from their Muslim neighbors; none of the Muslim bystanders “lifted a finger” to help, and Usman eventually died. (Asia News)

by Raymond Ibrahim 

The following are among the abuses that Muslims inflicted on Christians throughout the month of November 2020:

The Slaughter of Christians

Indonesia:  On Nov. 27, Islamic terrorists beheaded a Christian priest and killed three other Christians by slitting their throats in Lembantongoa village.  A Salvation Army church and six Christian homes were also torched during the raid.  While acknowledging that an Islamic militant group was responsible, authorities claimed that the attack was not “religiously motivated.”  One human rights researcher said that this “latest strike was a ‘clear escalation’ of violence against Christians.”

Democratic Republic of Congo: Between November 20-25, members of the Islamic State-linked Allied Democratic Forces slaughtered approximately 20 Christians in a number of villages.  According to a clergyman who lost his family in the massacres:

They tried to force some of our Christians to convert to Islam.  They also tried to force my wife and our four children to convert to Islam, but when they refused to convert, they shot my wife in the head while our four children were cut into pieces with a Somali sword.

The clergyman, who was not present during the attacks, added that “the rebel militants intend to establish an Islamist state ruled by sharia (Islamic law).”  Two days after the raids, a journalist reported that the people were still in a state of terror and bewilderment:

There was a throng of Christians flooding the streets in a helpless situation, as well as radical Muslim extremists surrounding five churches.  Ten girls had been raped and 15 girls abducted from the Anglican Church and Roman Catholic Church, with 14 Christians admitted to a hospital in critical condition with injuries to their heads, and others with fractured hands and legs due to the use of guns, machete, clubs, Somali swords and axes.

According to the report, there have been many such attacks on Christians in the weeks and months leading to this one, including where “more than 50 Christians who refused to recant their Christian faith were killed, especially women and children.”

Mozambique:  During the first weekend of November, members of an Islamic State linked terror group slaughtered 50 people in the Christian-majority African nation.  In the words of one report,

Islamic militants turned a village soccer field in northern Mozambique into an execution ground when they beheaded more than 50 people during three days of savage violence between Friday, November 6, and Sunday, November 8….   In one attack, gunmen shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’ stormed into Nanjaba village on November 6, firing weapons and setting homes on fire. Two villagers were beheaded and several women abducted…..  [A]nyone who refuses to support the jihadists and embrace their beliefs is attacked, and their property set on fire. Thus Christians who refuse to deny Christ are among the victims. The attacks are among the worst seen in recent years in the brutal campaign by militant Islamists to establish an Islamist caliphate in the oil and gas-rich Cabo Delgado province. Desperate people are flooding in to the Christian mission stations for protection.…. More than 2,000 people have been killed and about 430,000 left homeless in the region since 2017.

Ethiopia:  On Nov. 1, a few hours after federal troops “withdrew unexpectedly,” to quote an eyewitness, 60 armed terrorists stormed a school.  Announcing that they now “controlled the area,” they proceeded to hunt down and massacre at least 54 ethnic Amharas, “mostly Christian women, children and elderly.”  According to the report,

In the latest attack targeting ethnic Amhara, who are mainly Christian, some survivors were able to flee to a nearby forest, while the assailants rounded up women, children and elderly who were unable to run away, before shooting at the defenseless group….  One victim found the bullet-riddled bodies of his brother, sister-in-law and three children in the school compound.  Witnesses said that the attackers dragged some victims from their homes to the school, and reported that a school building and 120 houses were burned down…. This is the latest deadly assault in a spate of massacres in the past month in Ethiopia, which have left several dozen dead, apparently targeting the mainly Christian Amhara ethnic group.

Nigeria: A number of people were killed in the ongoing jihad on Nigeria’s Christians.  A sampling follows:

Nov. 1: “Islamic extremist militants in northeast Nigeria attacked a predominantly Christian village near Chibok, Borno state on Sunday morning, killing 12 Christians and kidnapping women and children… A church pastor was among those killed. Villagers suspected the assailants were militants of Boko Haram, which seeks to impose sharia (Islamic law) throughout Nigeria.”

Nov 6: “Armed Fulani killed four Christians in north-central Nigeria on Friday and the next day kidnapped seven persons, including five daughters of a church pastor.” “To date, the kidnappers have yet to make contact,” Luka Binniyat, a local activist, said: “Kidnapping of Christians is occurring almost on [a] daily basis…”

Nov 17: Christian community leader Haruna Kuye and his son, Destiny Kuye “were sleeping in their home in Gidan Zaki village when they were brutally shot dead,” said a local source. “It was a well-planned murder by evil men who sneaked into the village and headed for his home and unleashed terror. The heartless killers also attacked his wife and daughter, but they survived with injuries” from machetes and gunshot. “Pray for the Christians of Katarma village in Chikun Local Government Area,” he said. “Most Christian villages on that axis have been destroyed in the past three days, many killed, and some kidnapped.”

Nov 26-27: the Rev. Johnson Oladimeji was ambushed and killed by Muslims as he traveled home from to Ikere-Ekiti, where he leads a congregation of the Nigerian Baptist Convention.

28-29: “Fulani herdsmen attacks on predominantly Christian communities in Kaduna state on Saturday night and Sunday morning killed seven Christians.” Two children were also kidnapped and four people wounded.

Pakistan:  On Nov. 9, Muslim neighbors opened fire on and murdered Yasmeen, a Christian mother, and Usman Masih, her only son in front of their home.  According to the report,

On the day of the shooting, Yasmeen left the house around 10:30 and passed Ishrat Bibi [her Muslim neighbor, later described as “a bully and contemptuous woman”] who was holding a stick and began to fight and beat her neighbour. Two months earlier the two had quarreled over the water drain in the street.

At one point Ishrat Bibi called her two sons, Hassan Shakoor Butt and Khizar Shakoor Butt who, having come out with their guns, fired 20-21 bullets at Yasmeen. The latter’s son Usman came out of the house and seeing his lifeless mother went to help her, but he too was hit by shots.

Shabeer Masih [the husband/father of the slain] says that his son lived for about twenty minutes, asking for help, but no one in the village lifted a finger; a car passed by, but no one tried to take the son to the hospital. Usman had become the father of a little girl just a week ago and had another three-year-old daughter. ‘The whole family was very friendly and had good relations with the people of the village,’ adds Shabeer crying.”

Mariyam Kashif, a social activist and Catholic teacher, denounced the murders as “a huge example of intolerance and hatred that spreads against Christians.”  She added that this animus is nourished in the public school system, where “a reform of the curriculum is needed to eliminate all aspects of hatred and contempt. Only in this way will we be able to teach and enlarge hearts, changing the mentality of our society.”

Austria: A Muslim terror attack targeting a Catholic youth group was thwarted at the last minute.  According to the November 27 report (in translation),

[The] killer wanted to cause a bloodbath of the Catholic youth group … during a prayer evening in Vienna. The Islamist failed, however, because of a door that was locked by a timer … 17 children and young people belonging to a Catholic youth group escaped a catastrophe by a hair!…  Seconds later, the assassin was shot down by WEGA [special Austrian police force] officials in front of the city’s oldest church….. The 17 young people escaped the attacker by turning off the lights when the first shots were fired…. The young people stayed in the dark until 2:30 a.m. on Tuesday [Nov. 24]. Then the police gave the all-clear and the 17 boys and girls could go home.

Death to Apostates and Blasphemers

Uganda:  On November 23, Muslim relatives, including uncles and aunts, killed their own 6-year-old nephew because his father—the murderers’ brother, a former Islamic sheikh—had converted to Christianity and refused to return to Islam.  Earlier that day, members of his extended family had a two hour meeting with the apostate, Emmanuel Hamuzah, 38, who repeatedly “refused their demand to renounce Christ.”  Soon afterwards his uncle and four of his siblings came to and attacked Emmanuel outside his house.  His young boy, Ibrahim Mohammad, 6, was outside with him.   “You should renounce this Christian faith, which is a disgrace to our family,” they announced.  “I refused to yield to their demand, and they started fighting me with kicks and blows,” Hamuzah later explained. “I tried to defend myself while the other attackers were stepping on my child’s neck, suffocating him.”  The attackers fled when neighbors responded to the commotion, but his son died.  The family did not report the incident to police in fear of more reprisals.

Two days earlier, on November 21, Muslims killed a Christian pastor and his 12-year-old son. Pastor Wilson Niwamanya and his son Peter were returning home after having delivered Christian literature along the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo when four “radical Muslims” armed with blunt objects and a horn-hilted dagger known as a Somali sword stopped them.  According to another Christian worker, who was present but escaped,

When the four attackers emerged from the bush, they immediately caught hold of Pastor Niwamanya, saying, ‘This man must die for disrespecting our religion.’  The attackers began by beating them with blunt objects and thereafter used the sword and stabbed the young boy in the stomach. He died while the pastor and I tried to wrestle the attackers.

Once other motorcycles began to appear, the attackers fled the scene.  The pastor was rushed to a medical center where he later died from wounds to his head.  Earlier, including in the days leading to the attack, he had been receiving threatening text messages, including an order to “stop giving people books that discredit Islam, and if you continue distributing these books, then you are risking your life.”

According to the report,

Pastor Niwamanya, a well-known missionary in the area, had carried out Christian-Muslim debates in 2016, including one in which an Islamic leader openly rebuked him. Islamists began monitoring him after he appeared at an evangelistic event in Masaka in 2010 with evangelist Umar Mulinde, who suffered a horrific acid attack in 2011…   Pastor Niwamanya’s lawyer, Isaac Sendegeya, was shot dead in July 2019 dead by unknown persons. He was 39.  The widow of the deceased pastor has been receiving treatment for a previous attack she suffered for her faith and is in need of financial assistance – as do her surviving children and 15 others at the orphanage the pastor operated.

In another incident in Uganda, Muslims ambushed and butchered David Omara, 64, a Christian pastor and well-known radio preacher, for comparing Christianity and Islam.  According to David’s son, as quoted in a Nov. 6 report, soon after finishing his broadcast,

someone telephoned my father appreciating his presentation.  He then requested him to meet somewhere with some of his friends. We left the radio station. As we arrived at the said place, there came out of the bush six people dressed in Islamic attire, and they started strangling and beating my father with blunt objects.

While beating him, one of the Muslims said, “This man ought to die for using the Koran and saying Allah is not God but an evil god collaborating with satanic powers.” “As they were hitting my father,” the son continued, “with blunt objects and strangling him, I fled to save my life. Two attackers ran after me but could not get hold of me.”  During the deceased’s November 4 funeral,

“Area residents were shocked and saddened by the murder,” the report notes, “and church members were both fearful of further Islamist violence and sorrowful as they mourned at a tearful burial.”  His widow “fainted and collapsed with deep groaning” and, last reported, “was treated for shock that rendered her unconscious,” at a hospital:   “After Electroconvulsive therapy involving stimulation of the brain, she still did not recognize people.”  Pastor David Omara—whom associates lauded for having “worked tirelessly for the kingdom of God to the day he breathed his last breath”—is survived by his (traumatized) wife and eight children, aged between 10 and 30.

Egypt:  A spate of blasphemy related accusations and arrests erupted in November.  “In the past few days,” to quote from a Nov. 20 report, “several arrest warrants have been issued for Egyptian Christians accused of insulting Islam. A young Muslim man was also detained for mocking the hosts of the Cairo-based Holy Quran Radio Station.” Additionally, “On Nov. 11, the Supreme State Security Prosecution investigated two Christians … and referred them to criminal court on the grounds of mocking Islam and insulting religion.” In yet another incident, a Christian teacher and a Muslim girl were arrested on Nov. 11 over comments on Facebook seen as insulting and contemptuous of religion.   “The next day, Nov. 12, the public prosecution ordered the arrest of the teacher, identified as Youssef Hani, and the girl, who goes by the name Sandosa on Facebook, on charges of blasphemy.”  After Hani’s critical comments on Islam were shared on Facebook, social media calls for his death appeared.  “He must be killed,” read one social media post. “Someone volunteer, people, we will not continue to debate with a few absent-minded [Christian] minorities…We will squash them…”

Iran:  On Nov. 15, one month after a convert to Christianity was whipped 80 times, another convert, Zaman Fadaei, was lashed an equal amount of times and for the same reason: sipping communion wine.  He was scourged at Evin Prison, where he has been serving a six year prison sentence for organizing house churches and promoting “Zionist Christianity.” After stating that “Last month, the clerical regime [also] lashed Iranian Christian convert Mohammad Reza Omidi 80 times for drinking communion wine” the Nov. 17 report adds that,

Many Iranian Christians are in prison in Iran for practicing their faith. Heavy bail bonds and exile sentences are additional pressures that the Iranian regime imposes on Christians….   International organizations have repeatedly censured the Iranian regime’s suppression of religious minorities, including the Christian converts, for practicing their faith.

Judges presiding the trials in the clerical regime’s courts have been instructed to consider maximum punishments for religious minorities and particularly the Christian converts.  The Iranian regime criminalizes conversion to Christianity, and severely restricts the faith practiced by Armenian and Assyrian Christians.

Attacks on Churches, Crosses, and Christian Symbols

Austria: According to a Nov. 2 report, as many as 50 young Turks attacked a church in Vienna-Favoriten on Thursday evening, Oct. 29:

The attackers stormed into the parish church of St. Anton in Favoriten, shouted ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and kicking pews and other furnishing in the church….  Another Afghan was arrested over the weekend while shouting ‘Islamic slogans’ in St. Stephen’s Cathedral…. Churches in Vienna are now being monitored more closely as part of the patrol service.

Syria: To cries of “Allahu Akbar” (video here), a cross was ripped down from a Greek orthodox church in a region “controlled by U.S.-backed militants,” said a November 1 report.  The cross had been torn down years earlier, when the Islamic State controlled the region, but was restored by locals in an effort “to encourage Christians refugees to return to the city.”  The report adds that

ISIS and Turkey are encouraging a small group to commit these horrible acts. Prior to the ISIS invasion and destruction of the city, it was home to a minority of Christians belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church, the Assyrian Church of the East, Syriac Orthodox Church, Chaldean Catholic and Syriac Catholic Church, and various Protestants.

Italy:  On November 25, a 31-year-old Palestinian refugee decapitated the head and cut off the hands of a historical Virgin Mary statue in Marghera, a suburb of Venice (image above).  Video surveillance and a witness on the scene helped identify the vandal.  A translation of an Italian report captures local sentiment at the desecration:

A grim and shocking show for those who believe in that symbol [the Mary statue] and the sense of community of belonging that was deeply wounded by an act of vandalism.  Without head and without hands, almost playing out the violence of an execution, the rage poured out on a mutilated statue, that of the Madonna…  The motive is as yet unclear why he threw himself with such brutality against a statue, a symbol of faith, whether it is a case of mental imbalance, or he acted by virtue of a religious milieu…

Mayor Luigi Brugnaro called it a “vile act,” a symbolic “slaughter,” which “wounds our sensibilities.”

France:  On November 19, a Muslim man dressed in a jellabiya, traditional Islamic garb, entered the cathedral of Clermont-Ferrand and began chanting in Arabic and doing prostration prayers in the sacred Catholic compound.  A number of passersby grew worried by this display, police were contacted, and, after questioning, the man—who it was determined had not broken any laws—was set free.

General Violence and Abuse

Pakistan:  For two months after kidnapping her, five Muslim men repeatedly gang-raped and tortured a deaf and mute Christian teenage girl.  All this time, police ignored the parents’ pleas to intervene.  It was only when a local authority took up the case that the girl was located and returned to her parents, though only after months of court meetings and trials, as one of the kidnappers insisted the girl had willingly converted to Islam and married him.  According to Juliet Chowdhry, Chairperson for the British Asian Christian Association, as quoted in a Nov. 16 report:

This young woman has suffered the most vile and horrid attack.  There are few women my age that could survive such an ordeal and yet despite her young years, she has shown a strength and faith in God that is remarkable… [A]ll Christian women should be moved to tears at the base cruelty faced by our sisters in Pakistan.  This story should be a wakeup call—but how many of you will actually actively get involved in eradicating this evil?

Egypt:  Due to another Facebook post made by a 22-year-old Christian which was deemed offensive to the Muslim prophet Muhammad, rioting Muslims attacked Christians and their properties in the village where the youth originates (though he was not there).  According to one report,

[T]he Muslim villagers of al-Barsha have resorted to burning the farm huts and yards owned by Copts and located on their agricultural lands. These huts and yards are used to keep the cattle during daytime and to store cattle feed. Six of them were set on fire on the night of 29 November, in response to continuous incitement by fundamentalist Muslims against the Copts….  The hostilities against Barsha Copts go back to 25 November when the village Muslims waged an attack against the Copts with stones and fireballs. The attack took off from one of the mosques in the vicinity of the village’s Islamic Institute to cries of Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest) and verbal insults against Christians.

The face of an 80-year-old Christian woman was burned when a fireball crashed into her home.  Church property was also damaged, a stable burned down, cattle stolen, and the windows of Christian homes shattered.

Separately, on the evening of Nov. 8, Nabil Habashy Salem, a 61-year-old Christian businessman responsible for building the only church in Bir al-Abd, Sinai, was abducted in front of his house.   According to the report, Salem had gone out

at 8pm to buy something from a nearby store, when three armed unmasked men stopped him by force in the middle of the busy street. They forced a passing pickup truck to stop, threatened its driver and forced him out at gunpoint. They shoved the senior Salem into the truck and quickly drove away while firing bullets in the air. Those on the street were terrified…; nobody could do a thing. Peter Salem [his son] directly notified the police and filed a report. He sent an urgent plea to President Sisi to interfere in order to find his father, lest he meets the same fate of Bekhit Aziz Lamei who was kidnapped last August from al-Abtal village in South Sinai, and to date has not been found.

Austria: A 19-year-old Afghan refugee struck a 76-year-old Catholic nun in the face in the city of Graz before fleeing.  Thanks to surveillance video, police managed to apprehend him.  According to the Nov. 2 report,

The suspect, already known to the police for drug offenses and assault, has confessed to the crime; his motive is still unclear, police say.  Several anti-Christian incidents have caused a stir in Austria, after last week’s terrorist attack by a man shouting Islamist phrases at a cathedral in France.

Bangladesh: On Nov. 9, armed Muslims attacked a Catholic Christian village, “wounding faithful and desecrating their church — smashing windows and destroying books and other religious items,” states the report. Problems started in late September, when Rafiq Ali, a Muslim man with forged documents seized the land of Josper Amlorong, a local Christian farmer.  On November 9, Amlorong reported the land grab to police and, after confirming that it was his, they evicted Ali.  That evening, a vengeful Ali returned with dozens of armed Muslims who wreaked havoc in the village.  Discussing the temporary land grab, Amlorong said,

Ali and his people forcibly entered my property and took possession of it.  They threatened my life. They told me to leave the land. It is my only piece of land….  If I lost my land, I couldn’t live [he has been battling cancer for the past three years]. Without treatment, I will die….  Being I am Christian, Ali thought I am weak, but I will not leave my land until I draw my last breath.

About this Series

The persecution of Christians in the Islamic world has become endemic.  Accordingly, “Muslim Persecution of Christians” was developed in 2011 to collate some—by no means all—of the instances of persecution that occur or are reported each month. It serves two purposes:

1)          To document that which the mainstream media does not: the habitual, if not chronic, persecution of Christians.

2)          To show that such persecution is not “random,” but systematic and interrelated—that it is rooted in a worldview inspired by Islamic Sharia.

[newyorktheater]

Ato Blankson-Wood and Robert Gilbert

“These people recruit, rape and spread disease,” Mama says about homosexuals, not realizing she’s talking to one, in Chris Urch’s play, which takes place in Uganda in 2010.  That was the year that a group of college students led by Giles Muhamelaunched a newspaper in Kampala called The Rolling Stone that ran photographs of gay Ugandans, with their names and addresses, under the headline “Hang Them.”  One of those named, David Kato, was murdered.

A judge eventually ordered the newspaper to stop publishing these attacks, and to pay restitution to the victims. But homophobic laws and attitudes in Uganda persist.

“The Rolling Stone,” a play running at Lincoln Center through August 25, uses these true events of homophobic hysteria only as a backdrop to a fictionalized story that focuses on an 18-year-old gay Ugandan named Dembe (Ato Blankson-Wood.) And that counts as a missed opportunity.

We first see Dembe under the stars, in a rowboat, on a first date with Sam (Robert Gilbert), a doctor from Kerry in Northern Ireland, whose mother is Ugandan.  It’s a romantic scene, funny, and charming.

In the next scene, we see Dembe with his older brother Joe (James Udom.) Their father died three months earlier (their mother died long before), money is tight, and they are hoping that Joe will be appointed the pastor of their church.  Mama (Myra Lucretia Taylor) a neighbor and a church elder, arrives with the good news: He’s gotten the job.  Later, Dembe and his sister Wummie (Latoya Edwards) look up at the clouds – much like Dembe and Sam looked up at the stars — and guess their personalities. These scenes introduce us to friendly, likeable characters (and the first-rate actors who portray them.) What they don’t do is tell us much of anything about Ugandan culture, except that it’s homophobic.

So, when the plot kicks in – when Dembe is forced out of the closet and feels he must decide between his lover and his family; when Mama makes those ignorant comments, and Pastor Joe says even worse; when Dembe and Joe exchange Biblical quotes in attack or support of gay identity, and Dembe says “You think I chose this? Why would anyone choose this?” — “The Rolling Stone” feels like a play from an earlier era. Yes, people here and everywhere still struggle to come out to their families; yes, it’s  dangerous for LGBT Ugandans simply to live their lives.  Those scenes that explore the anxiety and the panic are the most effective. But, perhaps in an effort to make his play more “universal,”  the playwright presents too many scenes that most any New York theatergoer has seen before.  What would have been fresher and more intriguing would have been to explore more fully the specific time and place – especially when one learns that the British colonists introduced homophobia in the 19thcentury to what was previously a gay-friendly society…qnd the current virulence of anti-gay hatred is  reportedly due in part to the increasing influence of evangelical Americans in the African nation’s churches. There is one or two throwaway lines about all that in “The Rolling Stone.”

Adenike Thomas and Ato Blankson-Wood

Myra Lucretia Taylor and James Udom.

James Udom and Ato Blankson-Wood

The Rolling Stone Written by Chris Urch; Directed by Saheem Ali Sets by Arnulfo Maldonado, costumes by Dede Ayite, lighting by Japhy Weideman, original music and sound by Justin Ellington, stage manager Narda E. Alcorn Cast: Ato Blankson-Wood, Latoya Edwards, Robert Gilbert, Myra Lucretia Taylor, Adenike Thomas and James Udom Running time: 1 hour and 50 minutes including an intermission. The Rolling Stone is on stage through August 25, 2019

The Rolling Stone Review: A Gay Teen in Uganda Confronts Hatred and Violence “These people recruit, rape and spread disease,” Mama says about homosexuals, not realizing she’s talking to one, in Chris Urch’s play, which takes place in Uganda in 2010. 

[biofunmy]

For the Third Time, W.H.O. Declines to Declare the Ebola Outbreak an Emergency

For the third time, the World Health Organization declined on Friday to declare the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo a public health emergency, though the outbreak spread this week into neighboring Uganda and ranks as the second deadliest in history.

An expert panel advising the W.H.O. advised against it because the risk of the disease spreading beyond the region remained low and declaring an emergency could have backfired. Other countries might have reacted by stopping flights to the region, closing borders or restricting travel, steps that could have damaged Congo’s economy.

Dr. Preben Aavitsland, a Norwegian public health expert who served as the acting chairman of the emergency committee advising the W.H.O., said there was “not much to be gained but potentially a lot to lose.”

At the same time, the committee of 10 infectious disease experts said in a statement that it was “deeply disappointed” that donor nations have not given as much money as the W.H.O. and affected nations need to battle the outbreak.

But some global health experts have argued in recent months that the W.H.O. should declare an emergency to bring the world’s attention to the Ebola crisis. Dr. Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, a health foundation based in London, said on Friday that such a declaration would have strengthened efforts to control the outbreak.

“It would have raised the levels of international political support and enhanced diplomatic, public health, security and logistic efforts,” he said.

Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus, the W.H.O. director-general, accepted the committee’s recommendation, saying that, even if the outbreak did not meet the criteria for an emergency declaration, “for the affected families this is very much an emergency.”

The W.H.O. has requested $98 million for its response and has received only $44 million. In an interview before the announcement, Dr. Tedros said it had recently received commitments from Britain, the United States and Germany.

“We’ve never seen an outbreak like this,” he said. “It happened in a chronic war zone and overlapped with an election that politicized the whole situation. Militia attacks kept interrupting the operations, and when that happens, the virus gets a free ride.”

With more than 2,100 infected and 1,400 dead, the outbreak centered in eastern Congo is surpassed only by the 2013-16 West Africa outbreak in which more than 28,000 were infected and 11,000 died.

Supplies of the Ebola vaccine are running low, Dr. Tedros said, but Merck agreed Thursday to reopen its plant and make more. To stretch supplies until those arrive, doses are being split and a new Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be rolled out soon, he said.

The outbreak began in August and defied early expectations that it would be contained quickly.

Its epicenter is a conflict zone rived with so much fighting that medical charities and governments trying to help have had to withdraw, sometimes with casualties of their own.

In March, Doctors Without Borders evacuated its personnel from the epicenter after its clinics in Katwa and Butembo were burned down or overrun as their patients scattered. In April, a Cameroonian doctor working for the W.H.O. was targeted and killed.

The State Department ordered all American personnel — including doctors from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — to leave shortly after they arrived last August because of a firefight on the road from their work area to their living quarters.

On Tuesday, the first case outside Congo was detected in Uganda — a 5-year-old boy from a town near the border.

According to the Ugandan and Congolese health ministries, W.H.O. officials and Associated Press reports quoting border officers, the boy was a grandson of a pastor in Congo who fell ill in May. The pastor’s daughter, married to a Ugandan man, went home to care for her father, bringing her two sons, ages 5 and 3. The pastor died on May 27, and on June 10, a dozen members of the family started to return to Uganda.

The children looked sick, and when they were stopped at a border post, their temperatures were taken. They were put in isolation and told to wait while transportation to an Ebola treatment center was arranged. Instead, six members of the family slipped away and crossed on an unguarded footpath to the shallow Lubiriha River, which forms the border but is easily forded.

Only after the pastor’s burial, attended by more than 80 people, was it confirmed that he had died of Ebola. Congolese authorities are trying to find everyone who attended.

Ebola spreads in bodily fluids, including blood and diarrhea, and dead bodies can teem with live virus. Congolese health authorities alerted their Ugandan counterparts, but the 5-year-old was already at a hospital in Uganda, about 15 miles from the border. Since then, both boys and the grandmother have died.

Experts do not expect the Ugandan outbreak to spiral out of control.

Uganda has a strong central government and a cash-starved but organized health care system. It has endured and beaten three previous Ebola outbreaks, in 2000, 2007 and 2012.

On Thursday, Ugandan health officials announced that they had agreed with their Congolese counterparts to set up more health posts at “unofficial points of entry” like those used by the affected family.

Also, with outside help, Uganda has been intensively preparing for Ebola to invade from Congo.

“We’d been expecting it,” Dr. Tedros said. “It was when, not if.”

About 4,700 health workers and others who might come into contact with the infected have been immunized.

Unicef has held over 14,000 meetings at schools, churches, mosques, markets, taxi stands, bus stops and even funerals to discuss Ebola prevention and the need to seek care as soon as symptoms appear.

In eastern Congo, by contrast, the outbreak careered out of control because the area is so lethally unpredictable.

The area is so cut off from the capital, Kinshasa, that 20 people were already dead by the time the presence of the virus was confirmed in their blood samples.

Distrust of the national government there is intense and dozens of local militias and self-proclaimed rebel armies range over it. Health workers have been stopped at informal roadblocks where bandits demand money.

In recent months, experts have been alarmed by an acceleration in infections, though more than 130,000 people have been vaccinated. While it took about eight months to reach the first 1,000 cases, it has taken only a few more to surpass 2,000.

Officials believe many deaths are taking place in villages where families refuse to bring sick relatives in for testing.

Only a little over half of new cases in Congo are in people with known connections to previous cases, an indication that contact tracing, considered essential to beating an outbreak, has fallen apart.

The fatality rate among known cases is about 66 percent, but the number of unknown cases makes the real number impossible to calculate.

Sahred From Source link Science

from WordPress http://bit.ly/2ZlLghY via IFTTT

[damajority]

DaMajority Fresh Article https://www.damajority.com/recently-launched-christian-organization-sets-change-world/

Recently Launched Christian Organization Sets Out to Change the World

Recently Launched Christian Organization Sets Out to Change the World

PRESS RELEASE UPDATED: JAN 8, 2018

BOGOTÁ, Colombia, January 8, 2018  – A fast-growing Evangelical organization called the Covenant Christian Coalition is taking the world by storm and bringing together Christian leaders in dozens of denominations from every walk of life.

​Weimar López, who planted the Iglesia Evangelica Discipulos de Cristo de Colombia church in Bogotá, is a member of the CCC’s leadership team and says his reasoning for joining the movement was to “find brothers with whom to share the cause of Christ.” Furthermore, he says it was encouraging “[to] realize that we are not alone in this process.”

The CCC is an interdenominational organization that was founded by local Christian leaders in Dallas, Texas, in 2015.  In three short years, it has quickly grown to encompass dozens of Christian groups worldwide and is managed by diverse leadership consisting of pastors and ministers hailing from the United States, South America, Nigeria and many other countries.

From the moment of my conversion to God, He placed in me a desire to serve in the ministry. I have only seen His Grace sustaining me since then in this work.

WEIMAR LÓPEZ

PASTOR OF IGLESIA EVANGELICA DISCIPULOS DE CRISTO DE COLOMBIA

The organization though prefers the term “post-denominational” when speaking of itself and its many member churches, emphasizing that while many self-identify as non-denominational and others still prefer denominational confessions, all are united by historic Evangelical and Protestant theology, especially the doctrine of salvation by grace through faith alone.

CCC leaders are determined to bring greater unity among Protestants, but not in a purely ecumenical way that buries differences — rather in such a way that different confessions are respected so long as there is agreement on foundational matters.

López had been working for three years to get his church plant up-and-running before joining the CCC and had suffered discouragement, but was determined to press on. “From the moment of my conversion to God, He placed in me a desire to serve in the ministry. I have only seen His Grace sustaining me since then in this work.” His Evangelical congregation is now thriving and he has set his sights on bigger things — including participation in the CCC’s new worldwide movement.

Projects sponsored by the organization have sprung up around the world, including orphanages and schools in Uganda from where several members of the leadership team — called the Pastoral Council — hail.

The CCC has also funded environmentally friendly clean drinking water projects for the impoverished across Africa and South America, but despite these vocational accomplishments, members seem quick to tell people the real aim is evangelism and sharing the good news of Jesus.

With so many ecumenical organizations in existence, one might wonder what unique purpose, if any, the CCC fulfills, but the leadership is convinced that other interdenominational organizations have compromised their Christian convictions for the sake of lesser things and that the CCC is perhaps the first and only international organization broadly representing convictional, confessional Evangelical Protestants.

[airoasis]

Finest inspirational speakers in Nigeria ▷ NAIJ.COM

What do you know about inspirational speakers? They are more and more individuals engaging in this course all over the world. Our country is not an exception to this pattern. Let's browse the best motivational speakers in Nigeria!

Really, motivational speakers are talented and talented individuals like comics and singers, and they have a strong desire to motivate, challenge, encourage and provide hope to individuals through motivation. Nowadays, the motivational speaking market in Nigeria is a fast-growing one. As an outcome of this, we have some fantastic females and guys here doing a great task. Let's take an appearance at a few of these inspirational speakers: He is a professor of Analytical Chemistry. Vincent Anigbogu returned to his native country Nigeria in order to satisfy his passion of transforming lives after an intense lecturing career in the US. In accordance with his vision, the professor developed the popular Institute for National Improvement in 2007, one year after his go back to the country.

The institute, which happens to be his platform for carrying out his life change vision, has training centers in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Ivory Coast, South Africa, and even London in the UK, and Atlanta in the United States. His objective is to "develop over 20 million leaders worldwide."Also, Vincent Anigbogu works as an expert for churches, federal government, various organizations of greater learning, and service establishments.

The next one is Ubong Essien, who is understood to be the first motivational speaker in West Africa to have been awarded with a Qualified Speaking Professional. Really, he has actually touched numerous lives in Nigeria and throughout the world with his passion for assisting people to find and to improve themselves.

Ubong Essien is the author of"Dare to Dream and Be successful ","The Complete Speaking Course", and "The Entrance to Riches". He is the dean of The Public Speaking Training Center, of the School of Eloquence based in London and Lagos. By the way, he has actually worked as a consultant to big companies like Nigerian Tribune, NLNG, May and Baker, UAC PLC, and many others.Oluwafeolami Durotoye(also referred to as Fela Durotoye )is a family name. He is widely known as a skilled inspirational speaker who has an enthusiasm for reaching Nigerian youths. With a clear mission to "build the people that will build the country ", Fela has participated in many jobs over the years in a quote to help make Nigeria realise its dream. Also, he is the C.E.O of Noticeable Impact, one of the avenues through which he is reaching his objective. He likewise has other tasks like GEMS (Generation that will be Empowered, Encouraged, and Stirred to run with Natural Excellence ), RAISE, and so on. By the way, in 2012, Fela Durotoye climaxed of the greatest variety of books checked in one sitting by a single author. At the time, he transferred 10,000 of his book "17 Tricks of High Flying Students"in 8 hours 49 minutes.The next one is Sam Adeyemi, who is the founder and senior pastor of the Daystar Christian Centre. Sam is a honey-mouthed incentive who has actually touched numerous lives through motivational speaking, utilizing the Christian religion as his platform. He anchors programs on television and radio, and he is also the president of the non-profit company called Success Power. It is an avenue he utilizes to fulfill his vision of impacting lives. Sam has actually authored many books, some of which are" Parable of Dollars", "Who you Are", and "2nd Revolution". George Essien(born in 1982)is the first motivational speaker in Nigeria to be designated PPC(Peak Performance Consultant ). He is a young, dynamic speaker who began his profession in 1995 and ended up being a professional speaker in 2005. Due to his self-determination and perseverance, George has arrived and is now identified in his objective to motivate and encourage young individuals by utilizing his story. Really, George speaks at workshops and conferences throughout the country and is the organizer of PowerMinds Community.Then we have Niyi Adesanya. He is an expert on the subject of leadership and human capital advancement, who began his expert speaking career in 2005. He is the president of Niyi Adesanya Mass Empowerment Effort(NAME-IT), Alliance of Change Empowerment Speakers(ACES ), and Fifth Gear Consulting Company. By the way, Niyi has actually used his services to such huge business as Etisalat, Chevron, and Texaco. He released a number of books consist of "The Speaker", "The Politics of Profession and Organisation", and "Private Competitiveness".

Well, Steve Harris is likewise called a growing force in the motivational speaking market. He is a brilliant speaker who was noted amongst the world's top 100 business coaches to follow on Twitter in April 2016. As for now, he is the managing director of "EdgeEcution", a company of management consultant, and a certified member of such highly regarded organizations as International Licensed Professionals Association, Canada, Life Coaches Association of Nigeria, and International Coach Federation (ICF). He has composed his own inspirational books, among which is titled "The Quickest Range Between Where You Are And Where You Desired To Be".

Another top Nigerian motivational speaker and consultant is Uju Onyechere. His aim to help people explore themselves made him take up freelance writing for newspapers. He tried to reach out to more people during the early years of his speaking career.

Finest inspirational speakers in Nigeria He was as soon as estimated to have stated that he"mentored professors even as a first-degree holder". Actually, Uju is the C.E.O of "Edwards and Benson Group", and has actually authored books like "Models and Mentors", and "Managing Executive Tension".

The next one is Patricia Omoqui, an American lady wed to a Nigerian guy, making her Nigerian by marital relationship. Generally, the Princeton graduate has been a substantial effect on the lives of lots of people all over the world.

She is also widely understood as The Idea Doctor. She wants Nigeria and reveals this enthusiasm through her space as a writer in numerous Nigerian newspapers and magazines like Appeal, Lead, and so on. You can see Patricia on different TV stations in numerous nations, where she encourages individuals with her enriching video.

The last one is Olakunle Soriyan. He is the Principal Change Strategist at his Olakunle Soriyan Business, and a pastor at Fountain Life Church. In fact, Olakunle has a powerful life story of how he went from somebody to no one and after that reversed from no one to someone when more. To encourage other Nigerians and give them hope, he talks about the many mistakes and incorrect choices he had actually taken in life, and how he increased above them.So, we have had a look at simply 10 of the many speakers we have in the growing motivational speaking industry in Nigeria. Like lots of other countries, Nigeria is flooded with unmotivated, aimless youths who need the motivation to stay activated.To offer this inspiration to other individuals, you have to be an inspired and talented speaker. In any case, here are 10 of the most popular inspirational speakers in Nigeria, who can inspire us to do excellent things and to inspire other people. Think in yourself!

[mubahood360]

Makerere University "Strike Machine", One Other Arrested - UGNEWS24

Makerere University “Strike Machine”, One Other Arrested – UGNEWS24

Police have this afternoon arrested Obed Derrick, a Makerere University student and aspiring Guild President for reportedly addressing the media about the conditions faced by students stranded in Hostels.

According to a tweet shared by his social media campaign team, Obed was a arrested with a colleague, shortly after addressing the media earlier today and taken to Wandegeya Police Station.

“W…

[dmmowers]

Respect to whom respect is due

Respect to whom respect is due A sermon for Trinity Episcopal Church, Baraboo, Wis. 14th Sunday after Pentecost | Year A, Track 2 | September 10, 2017 Ezekiel 33:7-11 | Psalm 119:33-40 | Romans 13:1-14** | Matthew 18:15-20 **reading lengthened due to sequential preaching of Romans this summer

The line of homeless people parted for a Dallas police cruiser to come through. 

Then came another one. And another one. The homeless people came to this park several days a week because they knew that Don Hart and his team of volunteers would be there. The menu was scrambled eggs; volunteers stood by ready to pray with anyone who asked about it. But the dozen police cars that eventually showed up that particular morning made the homeless nervous. Was this some kind of sting? A roundup of homeless in the wrong place at the wrong time?

But then the police started questioning volunteers, and then came the order over the bullhorn: "This operation is feeding the homeless without a permit. Break these tables down now." 

Don Hart was the director of Bigheart Ministries in Dallas, and had fed, clothed and counseled those in the homeless community in Dallas for 30 years. Now you're telling him he needs a permit? Like a lot of major cities across the country, in 2005 the Dallas City Council passed an ordinance that said that any organization who wanted to feed the homeless needed the city's approval, needed to provide bathrooms and to meet a list of public safety requirements. Dallas and other cities said that this was a matter of public health, to prevent homeless people from getting foodborne illnesses from improperly prepared food. Hart shot back that the city wanted to sweep the homeless under the rug and prevent the homeless from gathering together. When he filed a lawsuit in it was a violation of his religious freedom: Jesus shared meals with homeless people, he argued. And you can bet that he didn't have a certified food safety manager amongst his disciples. 

Hart sued in federal court, and after 7 years, in 2013, the courts ruled in Hart's favor: feeding the homeless was an exercise of Hart's religious liberty. Hart began feeding the homeless again Easter Sunday 2013. 

I could have chosen a number of stories like this to open this sermon this morning. There are similar stories about feeding the homeless in many major cities in this country. There was an infamous anti-illegal immigrant bill in Alabama a few years ago, since struck down by the US Supreme Court, that made it illegal for any church to feed, teach or give a ride to anyone who turned out to be an illegal immigrant. The reality is that even though the United States was the first country to guarantee free exercise of religion, the relationship between politics and the Christian faith has never been particularly clearcut. 

I. 

This is not new. In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul helps the little church at Rome think through their relationship with the Roman Empire in our reading today. "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities; for there is no authority except from God, and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore, whoever resists authority resists what God has appointed, and those who will resist will incur judgment."

If you're anything like me, and you were waiting for what Paul thought about politics, and you read that, you might find yourself underwhelmed. So you're just supposed to do what the authorities tell you? Even if they tell you that you can't feed the homeless? Even if they tell you that you can't do things that are inherent to what it means to be a Christian?

For quite a long time, as Christians interpreted this passage, that's essentially the line they took. Christians were to be good citizens, pay their taxes and not cause problems for the secular authorities, because the secular authorities have been instituted by God. This interpretation is enough of a headscratcher when you think about American democracy. But the church in Rome lived in the backyard of the Roman Emperor. After the rise of Caesar Augustus, the second Roman emperor, around the time of the birth of Christ, a popular story began to circulate throughout the Roman Empire: people started calling Caesar Augustus divi filius -- a Latin phrase meaning "divine son" or "Son of God". The writers Horace and Virgil wrote celebrated histories of Rome that culminated with the rise of Caesar Augustus and the era of justice and peace that Augustus brought with him to the entire Roman Empire. The Roman emperors that came after Augustus encouraged this behavior, building prominent houses of worship so that the people could come and offer worship to the emperor, as though he was a God. 

Does Paul really mean that we are to be subject to the governing authorities even if they are demanding worship we give to God alone? Even if they are telling us that we can't feed homeless people? Is there more to the story here

II. 

As you might guess, there is more to the story, and we'll come back to how Paul meant the Romans to interact with the government in a moment. But I think we probably know people who treat our American government this way - as though our primary duty in life is to be a good citizen of the United States, and to live without running afoul of the law. Many of us treat the United States as though our identity as Americans is the most important thing about ourselves. Lots of us wince when we have to deal directly with government red tape or with state or county entities who seem more interested in collecting a paycheck than they do in helping the people they're supposed to serve. But all of that seems far removed when we talk about freedom, when we celebrate national holidays, and when we reflect on what our country is like.

Around the Fourth of July in 2016, Lifeway Research Group published a poll of 1000 Protestant pastors, asking them a number of questions about the relationship between their congregations and patriotism. One of the questions they asked was, "Do you ever worry that your congregations love America more than they love God?" 53% of pastors said that they did. I have been and continue to be a part of that 53%. 

The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is a God who displaces all other allegiances, who insists that our love for country must take a backseat to our love for and allegiance to the Lord Jesus and to the family that he calls to follow him, the family called church. This is obviously dicey territory. Lots of us in this room are veterans, and many of us have people we know who serve in the military currently. Sometimes when you start talking about allegiances, people think that you're being disrespectful to veterans or servicemembers, and I want to be sure that you all know that that's not my intent at all. We ask an enormous amount of our veterans and active duty personnel, and when they return from combat, our culture puts a cone of silence around them, limiting the places where they can share and process the terrible things that they experienced. I am tremendously grateful for the sacrifice that each of you veterans and military families have made. 

And so it's with all the respect in the world for military families that I point out that if we believe in the gospel of St. Paul, our primary allegiance must shift. The God who raised Jesus Christ from the dead is a God who will not have his people serve any other gods before him. When people ask us who we are, the most important marker is not American. It's not Democrat or Republican, or progressive or conservative. It's Christian. 

III.

That puts us in a delicate situation, of course. We are left in the tension of knowing that we are followers of the Lord Jesus and called to live a life that points to Jesus. Our primary allegiance has changed. We place the Lord Jesus and his church ahead of a flag, ahead of unbridled greed, ahead of our individual reputation in a community. And we still interact with the government and in some cases serve in the government - but we do so as Christians.  The governing authorities are not always friends of God's people. Christians in many eras have come under suspicion by governments because governments have feared that Christians were up to subversive activities. From Rome itself in the mid 60s, just after Paul wrote this letter, up to the present day in some cases, certain governments have seen Christians as a threat. The Anglican Archbishop of Uganda, Janani Luwum, was personally executed in 1977 by the dictator Idi Amin. In 1980, Catholic Archbishop Oscar Romero was shot and killed while celebrating Mass by a sniper connected to the military of El Salvador, where he lived and served. Even in America, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., while not undertaken by the government, was motivated by his activities with the Civil Rights Movement - political activities which were directly inspired and motivated by his Christian faith. 

Why does this thread of Christians being subversive to governments run through church history? Because of things like what Paul writes to the Romans here. He says, "There is no authority except from God, and those authorities exist that have been instituted by God." He's writing to a tiny, rag-tag church in the capital of an empire that spans the entire known world, an empire whose emperor is worshiped as a god himself, an emperor who claims all the authority there is on Earth. But Paul directly contradicts this claim: Caesar is not Lord of the universe because Jesus is Lord of the universe. Any emperor who would set himself up as the final authority on earth is confronted by the fact that that Jesus, who came to Earth as Messiah, has now been crowned King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Emperor of Emperors, President of Presidents, and he reigns as king over the world. That's present tense - he reigns now as king, no matter what Caesar tells us about his own authority. 

From the very beginning of the story of the Bible, our God has been a God who has wanted to share the task of governing the world with people. That's what Paul means when he says that all governing authorities are established by God - God graciously shares the task of governing with flawed people, and it is right for Christians to obey and support those people as far as it is possible. We pay to all what is due them, Paul writes - taxes to whom taxes are due, revenue to whom revenue is due, respect to whom respect is due, honor to whom honor is due. But when the culture around that little church in Rome was demanding that they go and pay homage to the emperor in temples built for that worship, you can bet that Paul's word to his little church was: no. Stop. We worship God alone. Caesar is not Lord because Jesus is Lord. 

IV. 

I preached a sermon a couple years ago where I touched on some political themes at a previous parish. When I arrived at the office for the first time after that sermon, I had a lengthy e-mail with the subject line: Stop Mixing Politics and the Gospel. That subject line has stuck with me ever since. There is an impulse that is deeply ingrained in American society that says that religion is one thing and politics are another, and so we can believe whatever we want to believe about God without having to critically examine our politics. Christians believe that each human person is created in the image of God, that each of us bear the imprint of God's loving creation. Lots of Democrats deny that this image of God exists for unborn children and so call abortion a right, rather than a violent denial of the image of God in an unborn child. Lots of Republicans are happy to say that convicted violent criminals are made in the image of God, but see no contradiction between this belief and the use of the death penalty, a process which violently denies the image of God in the person of that criminal. 

It took me a minute, but I came to really appreciate the person who e-mailed me. She had a problem with a few things I said, and so she came to me directly to talk about it. She was respectful and kind to me personally while making it clear she disagreed with me about some things. She met with me later and we had a productive follow-up conversation. We never got to where we agreed about the issue, but I better understood where she was coming from, and she could better see how the gospel made demands of us politically that she couldn't see before.  

This was a good example of the process of solving interpersonal conflict that Matthew lays out in the gospel reading we read this morning. When we have a conflict, we don't call our friends and tell them about what a terrible person so and so is. We go to the person directly, privately, and preferably in person to say that they have hurt us, or that we disagree about something, or that we wonder about something they said. We presume that they have the best of intentions, and we do our best to be honest with them. We might not get to where we agree, but hopefully we can settle the conflict and leave wishing the best for each other. If we can't, then we have another conversation where we bring along one other person and try to show the person where they've gone wrong. We confront hard things directly, we don't feed the rumor mill, we don't assume the worst of the other person. 

There's been a lot in this sermon today that you might read as more controversial than my usual preaching. I'll be the first to tell you that's because what Paul wrote is controversial; it's a difficult text. But if you find yourself struggling with the idea that following Jesus changes our relationship with our government or our country, let's talk. Let's confront whatever feels uncomfortable or wrong about that in private but directly so that we can go forward together. Maybe we'll come to agree, maybe we won't, but I'm committed to being here and to being your pastor, even if I've said things that you find offensive. That is the way that Christians resolve conflict, and that is the way forward for us in difficult political times: we talk together to discern how to be good citizens, how to pray for our leaders and servicemembers, but also to remind ourselves and everyone that all human leaders face the judgment of God. When leaders misbehave, or when they forget their God-given vocation to provide for the poor and for people who are vulnerable, Christians are there to remind them that there is  God who rules heaven and earth and who one day will come to bring justice to all those who are wronged by the abuse of any authority. The day when that judgment will come is closer than we think: "besides this, you know what time it is, how it is now the moment for you to wake from sleep. For salvation is nearer to us now than when we became believers; the night is far gone, the day is near." When that day comes, the righteous Messiah on his throne will be revealed, and all emperors, presidents and generals will bow and say, "Worthy is the Lamb to receive blessing and honor and glory and power." Thanks be to God.