Tag: Assemblies of God

Burkina Faso church leader killed by Islamists: ‘I’d rather die than leave my community’

May 2, 2019 Burkina Faso Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Djibo, IDPs, Islamic extremism, Islamic State West Africa Province, Ken Elliott, Sahel, Sirgadji, Soum, West Africa

An outdoor church outside a home western Burkina Faso.(Photo: CIF Action via Flickr; CC 2.0)

Gunmen who attacked a Protestant church in Burkina Faso on 28 April asked the pastor and five others to convert to Islam before they killed them, World Watch Monitor has learned. Last Sunday’s violence in the West African country appears to have been the first attack, specifically on a church . . . Read More

Burkina Faso: Kidnappers release pastor and his family after four days

June 8, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Children, Djibo, Education, Fulani herdsmen, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Sahel, Soum, Tuareg

The pastor abducted on Sunday with his family in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum has been released. Local sources told Omega Radio that Pastor Pierre Boena, his son David and his daughter-in-law, Ami Sawadogo, were released yesterday (7 June). The report did not specifically mention the two granddaughters, Fasne-wendé . . . Read More

Second Christian leader in two weeks kidnapped in Burkina Faso

June 5, 2018 Burkina Faso Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Assemblies of God, Burkina Faso, Children, Djibo, Education, Islamic extremism, Ken Elliott, Kidnapping, Ouagadougou, Sahel, Soum, West Africa

A Christian pastor and three members of his family have been kidnapped in Burkina Faso’s north-eastern province of Soum, two weeks after the kidnapping of another Christian leader and his wife. Pierre Boena, a pastor with an Assembly of God church, was kidnapped during the evening of Sunday 3 June . . . Read More

Iran: Christian retreat centre ordered to close by tomorrow

March 9, 2018 Iran Assemblies of God, Ayatollah Khamenei, Churches, Converts, Iran, Karaj, Protestants, Robert Asseriyan

A Christian retreat centre in Iran will finally close tomorrow, 10 March, nearly three years after it was ordered to do so and then later accused of being funded by the USA’s “CIA spy agency”. The caretakers of the Sharon Retreat Centre in Karaj, west of Tehran, have been ordered . . . Read More

Iran: church retreat centre confiscated for ‘being funded by CIA’

December 12, 2016 Iran Assemblies of God, Ayatollah Khamenei, Karaj, Tehran

The Iranian government has assumed control of a church-owned retreat centre, accusing the church of being funded by the US government and the CIA. The government said the retreat centre in Karaj, a city just west of Tehran, belonged to an organisation “funded by the US through the CIA spy . . . Read More

Iran: Pastor’s wife released early

January 30, 2014 Iran Ahwaz, Assemblies of God, Converts, Iran, Khuzestan, Proselytism

The wife of an Iranian pastor has been released from prison three months before the end of her sentence. Shahnaz Jayzan, wife of Farhad Sabokrouh, was released on Tuesday (Jan. 28) after serving nine months in jail. She has been released on the condition that neither she nor her husband . . . Read More

‘Martyred’ Iranian pastor remembered 20 years on

January 23, 2014 Iran Assemblies of God, Haik Hovsepian, Mehdi Dibaj, Tehran

Memorial services are being held in Tehran, London and California to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of Haik Hovsepian, an Iranian pastor hailed by many Christians as a martyr. Hovsepian vanished on January 19, 1994, three days after his protests helped to secure the release of fellow Iranian . . . Read More

Farsi speakers banned from church

January 3, 2014 Iran Armenians, Assemblies of God, Assyrians, Churches, Iran, Tehran

A church in Tehran has become the latest to close its doors to Farsi speakers. St. Peter’s Evangelical Church in the Iranian capital is preventing speakers of the country’s official language from attending following pressure from government officials, reports Mohabat News. Armenians and Assyrians will be permitted to attend the . . . Read More

‘Freed’ Asseriyan sworn to silence

July 4, 2013 Iran Assemblies of God, Iran, Robert Asseriyan, Tehran

Robert Asseriyan, the Iranian pastor arrested during a church service on May 21, has been freed, Mohabat News reports. Asseriyan, of the Assemblies of God Church in Tehran, was reportedly released on bail on July 2. Mohabat says the condition for his freedom is for him to remain silent, after . . . Read More

Tehran church faces closure after pastor’s arrest

May 30, 2013 Iran Ahwaz, Assemblies of God, Evin Prison, Robert Asseriyan

The sign on the church in Tehran: ‘This church is closed due to major repairs. Please do not return!Article 18 The future of the central Assemblies of God church in Tehran hangs in the balance, following the arrest of one of its pastors last week. Iranian authorities continue to . . . Read More

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