Think back to when you first became a Christian.
It might be that you grew up in a Christian family. Perhaps you already attended church. Outwardly, your life might have changed very little when you first truly trusted in the Lord for salvation.
Or maybe the change was more dramatic, and there were things in your life that needed to change. Perhaps following Christ was costly. Perhaps you faced ridicule – maybe even hostility – from your family and friends.
In Bangladesh, Christian converts endure fierce persecution and a level of hostility that leaves them under threat of violence.
Maybe even death.
“I had nowhere safe to stay and feared further violence”
“Some believers are threatened, disowned by relatives, expelled from their communities, deprived of inheritance or employment, and left without safe accommodation,” says a Barnabas Aid project partner in Bangladesh.
“Their sudden displacement can expose adults and children to further violence, homelessness, emotional trauma, and pressure to renounce their Christian faith,” he added.
“After my family discovered that I had become a Christian, I was told to renounce my faith or leave our home,” reported one new believer. “I had nowhere safe to stay and feared further violence.”
Barnabas Aid project partners are looking to operate a safe and secure emergency shelter for some of the most severely persecuted Muslim-background believers.
This shelter will be a safe place where your brothers and sisters will receive discipleship and counselling as well as accommodation and food. Each will be supported in building a new life, finding a safe permanent place to live, and settling into a church community.
These new believers are now part of your family in Christ.
Please pray – please give – today.
How you can pray
Our Father, we praise You for calling people in every time and place to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for our brothers and sisters in Bangladesh, those who have left Islam to follow Christ. Please meet their needs for shelter, safety, food and spiritual support. Please encourage them with the promise that those who have lost their homes and families for the sake of Christ “will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life” (Matthew 19:29, ESV), for we ask it in His Name.
How you can give
£8 ($10; €9) could provide food for one Muslim-background believer for a week
£62 ($75; €69) could provide a week of rent and utilities for the three-bedroom emergency shelter
£110 ($130; €120) could help provide all the furniture and household equipment for the shelter (approximately ten gifts of this amount would cover the total)
00-1365 (South Asia)