Seventeen churches have been forcibly closed in Indonesia’s Aceh province following last month’s election of a hard-line Islamic governor.

Emboldened by the April election of Zaini Abdullah of the staunchly Islamic Aceh Party, hundreds of Islamic demonstrators gathered and demanded that church buildings be demolished and not just closed.

Officials said grounds for the closures included improper permits and an agreement that’s more than ten years old stating that only one church and four small houses that function as churches could be built in the entire district. About 12,000 people in the district are Christian (about one-sixth of the population), and the number of churches in the area had grown to 22.

Source: Compass Direct

Prayer Points

• Please pray that the decisions to close these places of worship will be overturned.
• Pray that the number of believers in Aceh will continue to multiply.
• Please pray that Zaini Abdullah and other authorities in Aceh will come to know and love Christ.
• Pray that believers will be encouraged to continue to meet together despite opposition.