Gary Stagg, Executive Director of Open Doors Canada reported in a February 19th, 2025, email that, “Seventy Christians have been found beheaded in a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in what’s the latest devastating attack on believers in the north east of the country. According to field sources, at around 4am last Thursday (13 February) suspected militants from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) – a group with ties to so-called Islamic State (IS) – approached homes in Mayba in the territory of Lubero, saying: “Get out, get out and don’t make any noise.” Twenty Christian men and women came out and were captured. Shaken by this incident, people from the local community in Mayba later gathered to work out how to release those held captive. However, ADF militants surrounded the village and captured a further 50 believers. All 70 of those kidnapped were taken to a Protestant church in Kasanga where they were executed.
Muhindo Musunzi, director of the Kombo primary school, says that prior to this incident, churches, schools and health centres had all shut their doors because of the chaotic security situation. “We had to move all activities towards Vunying,” he said. Field sources report that, until yesterday (Tuesday 18 February), some families had not been able to bury their dead because of insecurity in the area. Many Christians have now fled the area for their safety. “We don’t know what to do or how to pray; we’ve had enough of massacres,” says one Christian leader. “May God’s will alone be done.” As Gary Stagg writes, I need to ask you to be in prayer for our persecuted family in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
In case more evidence was needed to make it clear that the corporate media is the worst, nearly every major Western outlet has ignored the 70 Christians who were just beheaded inside a church in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Besides the Christian media networks, only Newsweek and a media outlet in Japan reported on this atrocity. The same happened with a similar execution of 89 Christians in the DRC earlier this month was also not reported by the mainstream media. Despite the shocking nature of the killings, this is sadly not something new for the DRC. According to Open Doors, 355 Christians in DRC were killed in 2024 for their faith, an increase from 261 in 2023. The mainstream media doesn’t care – because the victims were Christian. Can you imagine the media frenzy that would ensue if something like this was perpetrated against one of the Left’s preferred identity groups?
Journalist Liz Wheeler, while noting that the terrorists who murdered these 70 Christians have ties to the Muslim-extremist group ISIS, states and asks, “70 men and women were beheaded…because they’re Christian. Their decapitated bodies were left in a church…because they’re Christian. MSM. Where’s your outrage? Are you silent…because they’re Christian?”
The Bible promises that when we do not have the words to pray, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us with “groanings too deep for words.” (Romans 8:26). We are also promised in Psalm 34 that “The Lord is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in Spirit.”
As your persecuted family reels from the terrors of this massacre, will you join in grieving and prayer for them?
Pray that God will miraculously comfort those who have lost loved ones.
Pray for the strengthening of the faith of Christians living in areas threatened by the ADF.
Pray for insecurity in the east of the DRC, that the Lord’s intervention will stop the attacks and calm the situation
Let us pray for the ADF, that the Lord will bring them to repentance and into relationship with Him. If they harden their hearts towards God, pray that He will confuse their plans.
And let us pray for the mainstream media writers to repent of their sinful biases, to change, and to be open to the things of God.
