Four churches were bombed including an Adventist church in the eastern Indonesian province of Sulawesi, Indonesia December 31.
Adventist Church sources have confirmed that among the four churches which were bombed on New Year’s Eve included the biggest Seventh-Day Adventist Church in Palu, Eastern Indonesian province of Sulawesi.
The Adventist Church was hit first with a homemade bomb at 11:50 p.m. Only the front door and most of the windows were broken, according to church sources in the region. No causalities were reported. Minutes later bombs also exploded at the Indonesian Christian Church and at a Pentecostal Church. A fourth bomb exploded at another Pentecostal house of worship the next morning, Tuesday Jan. 1.
“Luckily our church members have their New Year’s service at sundown, not 12 o’clock midnight,” said Ernst Sahensolar, Central Sulawesi Mission president. “It is tragic that religious strife continues,” say church sources. Police were guarding the four churches the next day.
“The situation in Indonesia now needs more prayers for God’s interventions,” says Reinhold Kesaulya, president of the East Indonesia Union.
According to reports from the region’s media, this latest bomb attack is part of continuous strife over religious control of the region. More than 1,000 people have died in the Muslim-Christian clashes in the region during the past three years.
