EAST AFRICA: PRAY FOR CHRISTIAN TEENAGER ABED AS HE FACES BULLYING AT SCHOOL

Please pray for 19 year-old Abed* who currently lives on the coast of East Africa, where Islam is the majority religion and the local church is under immense pressure.

Abed recently moved to the region with his Christian mum, stepdad and stepbrother. Because of the family’s Christian faith, they face many challenges.

“My life after my baptism and before we moved was fine. I had many friends and in the youth group we strengthened each other with phone calls and sending Bible verses to each other every day. Later we moved to this Islamic country. I have very few friends and many who do not like me, because I am different from them in school,” Abed says.

Image: A church in Kenya. Credit: IMB.org

FACING PRESSURE IN SCHOOL

Most of Abed’s classmates and teachers are Muslim. Abed often faces pressure in class and school because he is Christian. “One of my teachers always mocks me, and sometimes he does not let me into the classroom when he is there,” Abed explains.

“He mocks me saying that ‘you are swimming without an ocean’. Then he angrily tells me: ‘stop everything making you Christian. We are now in a Muslim Country. We are Muslims now. Stay away from what looks Christian in you… now you have to change because you are in a Muslim country’. This is when he told me to say the Shahada (the Islamic declaration of faith) and I refused. Then he told me to get out of his class and never come back,” Abed recalls.

Confrontations like this have often taken place in front of other students. “This broke my heart a bit because it was humiliating me and embarrassing me in front of all my classmates,” Abed shares.  

NOT GIVING UP

Despite the daily pressures he faces, Abed is not giving up. Though he feels hurt and rejected, he believes that God remains with him. He says:

“In everything happening to me, sometimes it is hard. I feel hurt living with it, but this verse always encourages me. ‘I am with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20). I realise that. I feel like even [if] it is hard, God does not abandon us. God is always on our side as we move ahead and I’ll always trust in Him in the face of all these challenges”.

*Name changed for security reasons