Hundreds Gather in Africa for National Day of Prayer for Eritrea
Hundreds of Christians from around the world gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday to participate in the first National Day of Prayer for Eritrea.
Posted: Tuesday, May 15, 2007, 10:43 (BST)
Hundreds of Christians from around the world gathered in Nairobi, Kenya, on Sunday to participate in the first National Day of Prayer for Eritrea.
The event was organised by the Eritrean Evangelical Fellowship in Africa and the Middle East. As well as members of the Eritrean Christian diaspora, participants at the prayer gathering included Kenyan, American and Ethiopian Christians and messianic Jews, one of whom had travelled from Israel with a message of encouragement and blessing for persecuted Eritrean Christians.
The meeting started at 2.30pm and ended at 11pm and was marked by powerful prophetic declarations, insights and visions alongside intercession and praise.
Following the meeting, several delegates at the event expressed the belief that change in Eritrea was imminent. "We are really expecting miracles" said one key Eritrean leader. "We are expecting to see the God who answers prayer by fire and to witness divine intervention in our nation."
Another leader added, "Something huge, beyond our imagination is about to take place."
The Eritrean leaders expressed their thanks to Christians around the world that had joined them in prayer that day.
"I would sincerely like to thank the international Christian Community," the EEF-AME General Secretary said. "May all those who have been praying about Eritrea share in its coming blessing as you have shared in our suffering."
Christian Solidarity Worldwide's National Director, Stuart Windsor, said: "Now that Eritrea is such a closed nation, we rely on the power of prayer to see an end to the spiritual repression they are suffering. Christians around the world have a duty to pray for the approximately 2000 Eritrean Christians, including the Patriarch of the Orthodox Church, who are currently indefinitely detained and often tortured for their faith.
"We congratulate EEF-AME on organising such a successful event, and hope that this is a spring-board for ongoing intercession for freedom of worship and a truly democratic society."
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Added: Wednesday, May 21, 2008, 18:51 (BST)
Contrary to the claims of the writer of the previous comment, it is both incorrect and unfair to state that the Christians currently detained without charge or trial in Eritrea have suffered this fate for refusing to undertake military service. The only religious group in Eritrea that has refused to do so - and for religious reasons - is the Jehovah's Witness movement. In addition, CSW continues to receive compelling evidence indicating that persecution began in the armed forces well before the banning of certain protestant churches in 2002, and to date Christians in the military continue to face punishment for gathering in groups for prayer or for reading the bible. The military service issue is a red herring, and is one of many calumnies that have been levelled against members of proscribed churches in order to discredit theit testimonies and to justify any action taken against them however extreme and unwarrented - including torture. Any honest assessment of the beliefs, practices and guiding principles of these Christians would swiftly reveal this accusation as the falsehood that it is.
Dr Gondwe, UK
Added: Thursday, September 27, 2007, 21:55 (BST)
Christians in Eritrea have only been detained when they used their religion as an excuse for refusing to serve their country. Wasn't Muhammad Ali arrested in the US for refusing to go to Vietnam? Please, make it very clear in this article why these people were detained and refrain from accusing a country of torturing people when you do not have any evidence to support that false claim.
Those people who gathered in Kenya did not have Eritrean leaders amongst them. Eritrean leaders are in Eritrea working around the clock to build up a nation, that has been ravaged due to years of United States-and Soviet-backed occupation by warmongering Ethiopians.
A nation cannot be built, if its citizens refuse to work, because they claim the Bible doesn't allow them to. That's why they are and they should be imprisoned when they refuse to serve their country, which does everything it can to improve their lives.
Robel, The Hague, the Netherlands
