A mob of Muslims overpowered police to get to Christians sharing the Gospel.

Voice of the Martyrs, Canada recently reported that 17 students were on a short-term mission trip at the tail end of February in Oma village, Ethiopia. The students, from Meda Welabu University, went to the Muslim village distributing Bibles and striking up conversations with villagers.

As students were handing out Gospels and talking to Muslims, one of the villagers began to argue with the believers. His rage became so overwhelming that a mob began to attack the young students.

The mob of Muslim extremists began shouting "Allah Akbar," which means in English, "Allah is greater." They beat the students with rods and threw stones at them. Government militia attempted to protect the students but were overpowered by the mob.

The mob attempted to set the Christians' car on fire, but failed, and the students were able to get away.

Currently, the students are praising God that no one was killed. They are, nonetheless, distraught that such a thing would happen in a country that guarantees freedom of religion. Ethiopia is #43 out of 50 countries on the Open Doors' World Watch List of the highest concentration of persecution.

Pray that the 17 students would find their strength in the Lord at this time and would not be discouraged by such blatant persecution. Pray that the extremists would have a change of heart and might even read the distributed Bibles. Pray that the students' work would bear fruit, that the Lord would knock down the dark strongholds in Oma, Ethiopia, and that many lives would be transformed.