Two gunmen stormed a church near Poso in the troubled region of Sulawesi, Indonesia on April 10, injuring seven people including a four-year-old girl. The attack happened at 7:15 p.m local time during an Easter service at the Tabernacle Church in the village of Kilo, Poso Pesisir, about 12 kilometres west of downtown Poso. According to the Poso police chief, three men dressed in Ninja-like costumes rode motorcycles to the church. Two of them entered and began shooting with M-16 assault rifles. According to the Jakarta Post, police have begun house-to-house searches for weapons but as of noon, April 14, none had been found.
More than three hundred paramilitary police have been sent to the area to maintain peace and to search for the attackers. There is no indication whether these attacks are connected to shootings in the Poso area at the end of March (click here for details).
Pray that these recent attacks will not escalate into the type of violence that resulted in more than two thousand deaths between 2000 and 2002. Pray that Christians will not retaliate. Pray that those responsible will be found and brought to justice.
For more information on the situation facing Christians in Indonesia, click here.
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