Christians in Libya are asking for continual prayer as they battle to keep access to their Union Church in Tripoli in Libya, North Africa.
The Church was established by expatriate Christians in 1962 and is one of five denominations recognised by the government.
When their premises were expropriated by the former Ghaddafi regime in the 1970’s, the church rented a building from the government on land that had been expropriated from others.
For more than 50 years the Church and three other Protestant multi-national churches has used this building.
A government committee since 2011 has been returning many expropriated properties to their original owners, with the building used by the Union Church being returned to the heirs of the original owner.
They applied in December 2020 to evict the church, with the court ordering the eviction following a hearing on 15 February 2022.
The Union Church has tried to reach an agreement with the new owners to continue to rent the building for a year and then buy it.
They have raised money for a down payment, but they face difficulties in transferring the funds to the owners’ bank.
They have appealed the verdict to gain time to sort out the banking problems.
The Union Church requests prayer for the members and leadership of the different congregations using the building to know the peace of God and the guidance of the Holy Spirit
For the government to provide the Union Church with an existing vacant building to use for worship (as happened when their building was confiscated in the 1970’s)
Also for the Lord to enable the church to buy an appropriate church building (either the existing one or another building)