Pastor Nadarkhani spent three years on death row in Iran because of his Christian faith. The courts accused him of apostasy – in his case, he was considered to have abandoned Islam. Even though apostasy isn’t technically a crime, they handed down a death sentence.

All over the world, hundreds of thousands of people are arrested, tortured or worse, simply because of the beliefs they choose. This is unacceptable.

Operation 18 is a new campaign we’ve launched to fight this problem. We need you to join us in defending Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, upholding everyone’s right to choose their religious beliefs. There’s plenty to do – signing petitions, raising money, getting your church involved. But it all starts with prayer!

This week please:

• Pray for Pastor Nadarkhani’s safety. Even though he’s out of prison, he’s still at risk;
• Ask God to protect other Christian converts in Iran who face daily risk of arrest;
• Pray for wisdom for CSW’s campaigns team as they run the Operation 18 campaign;
• Ask God to open up opportunities for you to discuss the issues of religious conversion with your friends, family and church;
• Thank God for the amazing response we’ve already had to Operation 18;
• Pray that we’d reach our target of 30,000 petition signatures upholding the right to choose your religion;
• Ask God to prepare the hearts of the politicians and decision-makers who will receive the Operation 18 petition, so that they’d be ready to hear and act on our message.
• Sign the petition and get more inspiration to join in with CSW’s Operation 18 campaign www.csw.org.uk/operation18