LATEST UPDATE from Pastor Peter Haneef on attacked pastors and believers

I hope this finds you well and with peace in our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for a prosperous new year, 2021, for you and that our Lord is with with you and blesses you from the beginning till the end of the year.

We have a wonderful, mighty Lord. Though we are in the midst of trials and temptations, our Lord God Jesus allows us not to be ashamed before unbelievers. We trust in Him forever and ever.

Pastor Masood, almost recovered from the recent brutal attack on himself and his church, has begun our Lord's ministry again. [You can read our earlier ‘update’ on the attack here, when Pastor Masood was still in intensive care after having had to undergo brain surgery] Fifteen youngsters who had been among his attackers came to regret their actions, confessed their sins and each has accepted the Lord Jesus as their personal savior! All now former Muslims, they accompany Pastor Masood as he visits homes and individuals to  share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Last Sunday morning, all were baptized.

Preparing Urdu bibles for distribution

They wanted to distribute 10,000 Urdu Bibles in the northern part of Bangladesh. By God's grace we have provided them with 1,500 Bibles as a New Year’s gift possible only by your help and prayers. We thank you in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ for your support. Pastor Masood has asked us for another 8,500 to distribute there this month. We hope you will join with us in praying for the fulfilment of their vision for our Lord's Kingdom.

Distributing Urdu bibles to hungry, thankful new Christians

One ALG Church in Africa, led by Pastor Mustafa, was threatened by some Muslims as they planned a New Year’s worship service in Somalia. Terrorists promised to burn down the church unless they closed it and stop all ministry.  Please pray for them.

Pastor Kumar and his church are praying and fasting to have a cemetery of their own. When they recently tried to bury the dead body of a believer, they faced many difficulties until at last they got a vault from another far-distant church and buried him there. So they urgently need a cemetery.

Our editor and chief communicator Susanna Perry-Ettel is back home after unexpected open heart surgery. While the surgery itself went well, she suffered complications afterward and has been in many ways herself through the valley of death. But by God's grace and with your prayers she came back to life. She is still however very weak and needs more prayers. [NOTE from Susanna: As a privileged, pampered Westerner I can honestly say I feel honored to have gone through this—totally helpless and utterly reliant on the goodness and graciousness of God and the prayers of His people. Privileged now to have personally shared in a small portion of the sufferings, trials and tribulations—and ultimate redemption—I share here so often with you through other people’s stories.]

Once again, thank you all for your prayers and support. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all now and forever. Amen.

With love and prayers,
Yours in His service
Pastor Peter Haneef, President, The Assembly of Loving God Church

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BLESSING Bibles for Mideast

Important update from Pastor Peter Haneef on attack in northern Bangladesh

We hope this finds you well and with peace in our Lord. Thank you for your prayers and kind offers of help for the pastors and other believers attacked in their underground church by Muslim militants in northern Bangladesh during five days of prayer and fasting.

Pastor Munna and the other two seriously injured believers have recovered and been discharged from hospital. Pastor Masood, however, is still in intensive care, having had to undergo brain surgery due to the extensive damage to his head.  By the prayers of the church. thankfully, he is slowly improving.

Many of the radicals who attacked the pastors and the believers have contracted Covid-19 along with their family members, and two have died. The whole village has been declared a hotspot.

But praise the Lord, none of our church members have gotten Covid-19 so far. They adhere strictly to the rules imposed by the government, knowing they are protecting themselves and others. They also of course know the power of prayer and praise.

The villagers have come to understand the Christians believe in and worship the true, living Lord. Some of them have confessed their sins and accepted the Lord Jesus as their personal savior! Please join us in prayer for the whole village.

Pastor Masood's family is extremely poor. Our church there, which he helps lead, is also small and poor. Unfortunately the burden of hospital bills—about US$7,000—is far beyond their means. We believe our Lord's treasury is so powerful and we look to Him. We humbly request your prayers to meet the hospital bills too.

Christmas and the New Year is coming. We hope a new dawn with the light of Jesus Christ will be rising up everywhere.

May the grace of our Father and the love of Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all.

With love and prayers,
Yours in His service,
Pastor Peter Haneef, President
The Assembly of Loving God (ALG) Church

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[earlier story here]

While prayer is of course the biggest help, if you are able to financially help these powerful new Christians as they recover and carry on the work of spreading the Truth of Jesus, please click
HERE.

Urgent prayer request for pastors and believers in northern Bangladesh

Two pastors and about 20 members of a Bibles for Mideast underground church in northern Bangladesh were brutally attacked by radical Muslims this morning and desperately need the prayers of God’s people. Pastor Masood is now in coma in hospital with serious head injuries; many others were hurt, and two had to be rushed to hospital.

While observing all Covid-19 protocols, the small group of believers were planning to hold five days of prayer and fasting in the church. On this their third day, an angry mob of some 40 terrorists smashed their way into and through the church wielding iron pipes and wooden sticks. They attacked men and women and destroyed furniture and musical instruments.

All the believers, including the pastors, had converted to Christ from Islam. A secret baptismal ceremony for several of the newest Christians had been held just two weeks ago. Unfortunately, word of the baptisms leaked to the local imam and community leaders last Friday, and plans for the attack began formulating.

Just two weeks ago, roughly 50-60 armed Muslims attacked a nearby Christian village over a land dispute.  One person was injured and a Catholic chapel, a grocery store and several homes were ransacked.

Attack on CHristian village in northern Bangladesh

PLEASE join us in prayer for these believers: for their recovery, and future safety. We treasure and need your help as we work to further God’s Kingdom no matter the challenges and hardships.

[With reporting by Pastor Peter Haneef, President, Assembly of Loving God (ALG) Church]

What comes to mind when you hear the word ‘worship’?

WORSHIP: Is it the service you go to Sundays, the music played and sung in Sunday ‘worship services’, the Christian music you may listen to at home or in your car? The kind of thing David did in Old Testament times alone with God and his harp? What you make an effort to do as part of those ‘quiet times’ you aim to have regularly with the Lord? All of the above?

Using words to describe spiritual concepts may be the thorniest use of them possible. But then as a Christian writer, I recall how God of course inspired all the words in our Bible, including the pivotal ‘in the beginning was the Word’ (John 1:1). So He clearly places high value on wrapping up the concepts He wants us to learn and digest in small-w words ... including to describe his own Son, the Word incarnate. 

With the word ‘worship’, however, we the Church—individually and corporately—toss it about so lightly it may be time to mull over the meaning lying beneath and within more carefully.

In the context of considering Christian music as ‘worship’, British songwriter and, yes, ‘worship leader’ Matt Redman gives a great illustrated sermon. 

Back in the 1990s, Redman and his church in England were gaining acclaim as they moved into the vanguard of this concept of modern worship: excellence of craft combined with the best of sound systems, projectors, lights, the whole production. But his preaching pastor had begun noticing a flatness creeping in. While everyone went through the motions and to outward appearances all seemed 'fine', the heart connection had loosened and seemed to be slipping away.

So the pastor did a radical thing.

“He decided to get rid of the sound system and band for a season,” explains Redman. “His point was that we’d lost our way in worship, and the way to get back to the heart would be to strip everything away.”

The pastor challenged the congregation to be participants in worship, not consumers: to engage with God for themselves, from the heart, with their own voices. When the first few awkward gatherings passed, the church eventually launched into a whole new season of authentic adoration and praise.  

Redman’s now-famous song ‘The Heart of Worship’ describes what happened (you can also listen to it below): 

When the music fades,
All is stripped away.
And I simply come;
Longing just to bring
Something that’s of worth,
That will bless Your heart.
. . . .
I’m coming back to the heart of worship
and it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.
I’m sorry, Lord, for the thing I’ve made it
when it’s all about You, it’s all about You, Jesus.

“After a while, the worship band and the sound system reappeared, but now it was different,” Redman explains in his book The Unquenchable Worshipper. “The songs of our hearts had caught up with the songs of our lips.”  

Ten Steps to Spiritual Maturity

Christians should ‘know better’, but we also know than only with God’s help can we be genuinely spiritually mature. Pastor Paul offers a few helps here, all not only possible but essential if we are to live in Christian maturity.

1. Stop trying to change others; focus instead on changing ourselves.
2. Accept others as they are.
3. Know that in your, mine and everyone’s point of view, we are all ‘right’.
4. Learn to let go.
5. Be able to drop expectations for a relationship; instead, give for the sake of giving.
6. Be understanding in whatever we do, doing all for peace and reconciliation, which glorifies the Name of our Lord.
7. Stop trying to prove to the world how intelligent we are.
8. Don’t seek approval from others.
9. Stop comparing ourselves with others.
10. Be at peace with, and within, ourselves.

Congratulations to Pastor Paul on his 45th spiritual birthday!

We are so full of thanks to God for the day, 45 years ago on October 10, that He rescued our dear Pastor Paul from a life of drugs, alcohol, and the darkness and deception of Islam. If you haven’t yet, you can read his dramatic, powerful testimony here.

Despite facing obstacles, persecutions and trials at almost every turn along his path, he has survived and continues to lead with strength, compassion and courage.

“Absolutely it is by our Lord’s grace alone,” he says, yet also acknowledges how the prayers of believers worldwide have been his fortress.

On this site alone, we have shared many stories of threats to him and other Bibles for Mideast workers and families, and numerous attempts on his life.

Perhaps the most widely-read was the horrific stoning in Bangladesh when he and many others were attacked while performing a baptismal service. Rushed to hospital, then to another for emergency brain surgery, the story only intensified.  

“The Islamic militants who had attacked us discovered I was undergoing treatment in that hospital, and plotted to kill me,” he explained. “So the believers shifted me from the hospital to Pastor Ayyoob’s house in a nearby forested area.”

Militants again discovered his whereabouts, which brought about our now-famous ‘when the lions rescued the Christians’ story (Stoned by terrorists, protected by a lion!). Still, months of difficulties and several brain surgeries ensued, and at one point he even had to be rescued from a hospital in India where militants, disguised as doctors, attempted to kill him and his wife.

While the world and the work have slowed down, even in this time of coronavirus we must ‘keep up the good fight’ … one of love, compassion and with the spiritual maturity Pastor Paul exemplifies so excellently.