Sound Doctrine Church

April 11th 2010 Military officials on Saturday, March 27, 2010, arrested 17 young men gathered for prayer in a town called Segenaite in southern Eritrea, Africa. The men are apparently Christian soldiers doing their compulsory national military service. They belong to various churches. These arrests bring the number up to 28 reported number of Christians arrested since the beginning of March for their refusal to stop worshipping outside of the government sanctioned Eritrean Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical Lutheran churches. Sources announced in February that approximately 2,200 Christian s remain in prison for their refusal to stop practicing their faith outside of the government sanctioned religious group.

Pray for the 17 men who just went into prison and for the thousands already there. Pray that those Christians would rejoice and share the gospel with all.

On December 5 officials of Eritrea arrested 30 Christian women in Asmara, the capital city of the country. The mostly elderly women were praying together at a house when security forces rounded them up and hauled them off to police station one in Asmara. Most of the detainees are members of Faith Mission Church, an Evangelical Church with a Methodist background. The church has been carrying out evangelistic and development activities in Eritrea for over five decades and was forced to go underground in 2002 after Eritrean officials required all religious groups to register. Since 2002, officials of Eritrea have been cracking down on members of both registered and unregistered churches. They have imprisoned more than 3000 Christians keeping them in underground dungeons, metal shipping containers, and military barracks. Several Christians have died inside prisons due to torture and lack of medical attention.

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