Pakistan – A Christian woman charged with blasphemy nine months ago is still in prison in Pakistan. Last July, she was accused of insulting Islam in a WhatsApp conversation and has been awaiting her trial ever since. The trial is expected to be held today, but these trials have been known to go on for years or even decades.

Her husband and children are distraught, especially after seeing the deplorable conditions she is being held in. Fearing further persecution for their faith, they have tried to stay under the radar since the arrest. The Christian woman’s youngest told AsiaNews, “They keep her in a small cell and there is a separation barrier between prisoners and visitors. It is heartbreaking to see her locked up like that.” He likened living without his mother to living in a body without a soul.

Freedom of religion is guaranteed under the constitution of Pakistan, but that freedom is conditional on what constitutes blasphemy in the Muslim-majority nation. ICC is aware of dozens of blasphemy cases in Pakistan with the most severe punishments being life in prison or death. The blasphemy laws are contrary to human rights laws, yet there is no sign of them being amended or abolished. We pray for this Christian woman’s release and for a swift end to the blasphemy laws.
Sources:persecution

http://theendtimeradio.com

സൊകോട്ടോ: ആഫ്രിക്കന്‍ രാജ്യമായ നൈജീരിയയില്‍ മതനിന്ദ ആരോപിച്ച് മതഭ്രാന്തരായ സഹപാഠികളുടെ ക്രൂരമായ മര്‍ദ്ദനത്തിനും, കല്ലേറിനും ഇരയായി കൊല്ലപ്പെടുകയും, മൃതദേഹം ചുട്ടെരിക്കപ്പെടുകയും ചെയ്ത ക്രിസ്ത്യന്‍ വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥിനി ദെബോറ സാമുവല്‍ യാക്കുബുവിന്റെ മരണത്തിന് പിന്നാലേ ഇരുപതോളം പേര്‍ യേശുവിനെ രക്ഷകനായി സ്വീകരിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ടെന്നു പിതാവിന്റെ വെളിപ്പെടുത്തല്‍. ഇവാഞ്ചലിക്കല്‍ സമൂഹത്തിന്റെ സാമൂഹ്യ രാഷ്ട്രീയ വിഭാഗമായ ‘ഇവാഞ്ചലിക്കല്‍ ചര്‍ച്ച് വിന്നിംഗ് ഓള്‍’ (ഇ.സി.ഡബ്യു.എ) സംഘടന 2,50,000 നൈറ ആശ്വാസ സഹായമായി നല്‍കിയപ്പോഴാണ് അദ്ദേഹം ഇക്കാര്യം വെളിപ്പെടുത്തിയത്.

ദെബോറയുടെ മരണത്തേത്തുടര്‍ന്ന്‍ ഇരുപതോളം പേര്‍ തന്റെ വീട്ടില്‍വെച്ച് തങ്ങളുടെ ജീവിതം ക്രിസ്തുവിനായി സമര്‍പ്പിച്ചുവെന്ന് അദ്ദേഹം വെളിപ്പെടുത്തല്‍ നടത്തിയതായി ആഫ്രിക്കന്‍ വാര്‍ത്താ വെബ്സൈറ്റായ ‘ലെജിറ്റ്’ന്റെ റിപ്പോര്‍ട്ടില്‍ പറയുന്നു. തന്റെ വീട്ടില്‍ അവരെത്തി പ്രാര്‍ത്ഥനയില്‍ പങ്കെടുത്തുവെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം കൂട്ടിച്ചേര്‍ത്തു. സുവിശേഷത്തോടുള്ള ദെബോറയുടെ ആവേശം ജ്വലിപ്പിച്ച അഗ്നി അവളുടെ മരണം കൊണ്ട് അണയില്ലെന്നും അത് പൂര്‍വ്വാധികം ശക്തിയോടെ ജ്വലിക്കുമെന്നും ഇ.സി.ഡബ്യു.എ പ്രതിനിധി റവ. ജൂലിയസ് ഒഡോഫിന്‍ (ജെ.പി) പറഞ്ഞു. സംഭവത്തിന്റെ പേരില്‍ മറ്റുള്ള കുട്ടികളെ വിദ്യാലയങ്ങളില്‍ വിടാന്‍ മടിക്കരുതെന്നും, അങ്ങനെ ചെയ്യുകയാണെങ്കില്‍ അത് സാത്താന്റെ ദൗത്യത്തിനു നല്‍കുന്ന വിലകുറഞ്ഞ വിജയമായി മാറുമെന്നും അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞു.

നേരത്തെ നൈജീരിയന്‍ സര്‍ക്കാരില്‍ നിന്നും ദെബോറയുടെ മൃദേഹം അടക്കം ചെയ്യുന്നതിനായി വിട്ടുകിട്ടുന്നതിന് ചിലവായ 1,20,000 നൈറയും സംഘടന തന്നെയാണ് നല്‍കിയത്. സംഘടനയുടെ ഉദാരമനസ്കതക്ക് നന്ദി പറയുവാന്‍ വാക്കുകള്‍ കിട്ടുന്നില്ലെന്നു ദെബോറയുടെ പിതാവ് പറഞ്ഞു. “എനിക്കും എന്റെ കുടുംബത്തിനും വേണ്ടി നിങ്ങള്‍ ചെയ്തതിനെ ഞാന്‍ അഭിനന്ദിക്കുന്നു. എനിക്ക് എന്താണ് പറയേണ്ടതെന്നറിയില്ല. ദെബോറയുടെ പ്രശ്നത്തില്‍ ഇടപെട്ട എല്ലാവരേയും ദൈവം അനുഗ്രഹിക്കട്ടെ” – അദ്ദേഹം പറഞ്ഞു.

ഇതിനിടെ ദെബോറയുടെ മരണവുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട് പോലീസ് അറസ്റ്റ് ചെയ്ത രണ്ടുപേരെ കോടതി റിമാന്‍ഡ് ചെയ്തു. ഇതിനെക്കുറിച്ച് കൂടുതല്‍ അന്വേഷണം നടത്തുവാന്‍ സമയമാവശ്യമുണ്ടെന്ന്‍ പോലീസ് അറിയിച്ചതിനെ തുടര്‍ന്ന്‍ വിധിപ്രസ്താവം നീട്ടിവെച്ചിരിക്കുകയാണ്. കൊലപാതകവുമായി ബന്ധപ്പെട്ട് സംശയിക്കപ്പെടുന്ന 4 പേര്‍ക്കായി പോലീസ് ‘ലുക്ക്ഔട്ട്‌’ നോട്ടീസ് പുറപ്പെടുവിച്ചിട്ടുണ്ട്, സമൂഹമാധ്യമങ്ങളില്‍ വൈറലായ ഒരു വീഡിയോയില്‍ കാണുന്ന ഇവരേക്കുറിച്ച് എന്തെങ്കിലും വിവരം ലഭിക്കുകയാണെങ്കില്‍ പോലീസിനെ അറിയിക്കണമെന്നാണ് നിര്‍ദ്ദേശം.

ഇക്കഴിഞ്ഞ ആഴ്ചയാണ് സൊകോട്ടോയിലെ ഷെഹു ഷഗാരി കോളേജ് വിദ്യാര്‍ത്ഥിനിയായിരുന്ന ദെബോറ ക്രൂരമായി കൊല്ലപ്പെട്ടത്. വാട്സാപ്പില്‍ പോസ്റ്റ്‌ ചെയ്ത വോയിസ് മെസേജില്‍ മതനിന്ദയുണ്ടെന്ന ആരോപണത്തേത്തുടര്‍ന്നായിരിന്നു കൊലപാതകം. കോളേജ് അധികാരികള്‍ സുരക്ഷിതമായി ഒളിപ്പിച്ചിരുന്ന മുറിയില്‍ നിന്നും ബലമായി വലിച്ചിഴച്ചു കൊണ്ടുപോയ മുസ്ലീം സഹപാഠികള്‍ പെണ്‍കുട്ടിയെ ക്രൂരമായി മര്‍ദ്ദിച്ചും, കല്ലെറിഞ്ഞും കൊലപ്പെടുത്തിയ ശേഷം അഗ്നിക്കിരയാക്കുകയായിരുന്നു.
കടപ്പാട് :പ്രവാചക ശബ്ദം

http://theendtimeradio.com

A man who served 33 years in prison for a murder he committed in 1987 has since helped lead hundreds of other inmates to faith in Jesus Christ through his work with a prison ministry.

Stanley Stever, a 52-year-old former inmate, has worked with Kindway, a Christian prison ministry based in Westerville, Ohio, founded in 2009.

In an interview with The Christian Post, Stever said he believes that God has forgiven him for the murder he committed and that there is hope for others who have committed crimes to be reconciled to God through Jesus Christ.

“Becoming a Christian was almost like being a recipient of a heart transplant, and it gave me the ability to come to the understanding that I have a new heart. And with that new heart, there’s a new responsibility,” Stever said.

Stever became a Christian in 1999 while still imprisoned at the Marion Correctional Institution in Marion County. Since he started telling other inmates about his testimony, Stever said he found healing. He said it’s amazing to see how many lives he has changed through his redemption story.

“I’ve heard it said several times that ‘forgiveness is not forgetfulness.’ This means that you overcome the enemy by the blood of the lamb and the words of your testimony,” Stever said.

“But, don’t ever forget the things that the enemy did through you, in order that you might show the power of Christ to others in the Word through Him.”

Looking back on his troubled past, Stever believes that many factors led him to kill another person.

He said he had deep anger that he kept bottled inside as a teenager. He said he was also bullied, which meant he was isolated from his peers in school.

“It was always the name-calling. I was a bigger kid. My name is Stanley Stever. So, they called me ‘Stanley Steamer.’ I became the joke of the school. And every day I went to school, I hated it,” Stever recalled.

“I would physically get sick walking into school because of the anxiety that I had about going to school and knowing that I was going to be teased and belittled the whole day. And really, that’s when the anger and the rage first started, which changed my mindset as a child.”

‘Sticks and stones will break your bones’
Growing up in Northern Sycamore, Ohio, Stever had six sisters and one brother. He remembers his mother and father were workaholics. He considered them “old school” because they thought that the more money they could bring in, the better off the family would be.

In his younger years, Stever said the relationship with his mother was great, and he looked up to her as a role model because of her selflessness.

“But to have a role model, you have to be a willing vessel in that also, and I wasn’t a willing vessel,” Stever recalled.

Stever said his father was another role model who respected women and loved his family. However, Stever said his father never disciplined him.

“Whenever I would fall short or do anything wrong, it would be, you know, ‘boys will be boys’ [or] ‘he’ll grow out of it.’ He didn’t have a clue what I was going through,” Stever said.

“I guess you would call it a normal childhood, except for the different things that would happen at school,” he added. “I felt like everybody was always making fun of me and was always belittling me. … I was always in turmoil.”

Being raised in the ’70s, Stever said, didn’t help his life at school because counseling and in-school intervention for bullying were not common during that time.

“The tagline for that generation was ‘sticks and stones will break your bones, but names will never hurt you’ and ‘knuckle up and be a man.’ And these are the things that they would tell the young boys that were going through it,” Stever said.

“I alienated myself. I didn’t like people. I didn’t like being around people. I brought a lot of that on because of what I was going through because I had no idea how to deal with it.”

As Stever reached his mid-adolescence and started attending high school, the bullying continued. To mask his pain, Stever turned to drugs and alcohol.

“I would do just about anything that was put in front of me: from marijuana to beer to whiskey, cocaine, LSD, weapons and wet. I hated myself and I hated everything about me and I would do anything to get rid of that pain,” Stever detailed.

‘I could be whoever I wanted to be’
Doing drugs and alcohol, Stever said, made him feel as though he could leave his pain behind for short periods, telling CP that “it let me not be the person that I hated.”

“And not being that person, I became someone that I could make up. At the drop of a hat, I could be whoever I wanted to be that day. I could be the mean, hateful, resentful guy. I became a chameleon,” Stever recounted.

“And then, there was also the selfishness, the self-desires — everything that goes along with that part of a life attaches itself to you, and it attached itself to me.”

About two years later, at age 17, Stever’s bottled-up anger turned to rage and led him to commit a murder. After his arrest and during the trial, Stever turned 18.

As a result, he was tried as an adult and sentenced to 20 years to life in prison. He wound up serving 33 years before his release in October 2020.

When Stever thinks back on his crime, he thinks about how he didn’t have an outlet to properly release his anger during his youth, noting that he “had no idea what life was.”

“I said in my testimony that ‘I wasn’t born a murderer.’ I didn’t wake up one day thinking, ‘you know what, I’m going to take someone’s life today.’ That’s not who I am,” Stever shared.

“The reasoning behind what I did is [that] I was a child with no sense of direction, with no supervision, with no identity, with no respect for life. And if you add all of that up, it’s a recipe for tragic results. And that’s what happened.”

Something ‘contagious’
During Stever’s time at Marion Correctional Institution, he joined a neo-Nazi gang called the Aryan Brotherhood to find protection and a sense of community behind bars.

After a decade of being a gang member within prison walls, Stever said the gang leader came to know Christ through a four-day Christian retreat for inmates from Kairos Prison Ministry International.

Stever said there was something “contagious” about the change he saw in the ex-gang boss, which led him to attend a Kairos four-day Christian retreat.

For the first time in his life, Stever learned about the concept of forgiveness. Shortly after that, he accepted Christ as his Lord and Savior on Oct. 31, 1999.

Stever began working with Kindway while in prison. He eventually met his wife, Amy, through the prison ministry. The couple married in 2012.

Stever will continue to disciple inmates through Kindway for as long as he can, saying it’s “awesome to bring the love of God into other people’s lives.”

“We’ve actually expanded the prison ministry into a reentry ministry that helps the men and women transition from prison out into society and become successful,” Stever said.

“My job involves going in and working with incarcerated men and women, and we meet them where they are and help them work through their past. And then, we help them transition back into communities. It brings peace to my spirit to know that I am making a difference, one person at a time.”
Sources:Christian Post

http://theendtimeradio.com