Barnabas aid March April 2018

barnabasaid

barnabasaid.org MARCH/APRIL 2018

BARNABAS AIDFUND - HOPE- AND AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH - BRINGING HOPE TO SUFFERING CHRISTIANS BARNABAS AID RELIEF AGENCY FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH

PAKISTAN

Danger, discrimination, and dhimmitude

FROM HUNGER TO HOPE

Transformational new projects in East Africa

The story

PULL-OUT

A history of Christian persecution, part 5

of Pakistan’s Christians

® hope and relief for the persecuted church

What helps make Barnabas Aid distinct from other Christian organizations that deal with persecution?

We work by: ● directing our aid only to Christians, although its benefits may not be exclusive to them (“As we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”

Galatians 6:10, emphasis added) ● aiming the majority of our aid at Christians living in Muslim environments ● channeling money from Christians through Christians to Christians ● channeling money through existing structures in the countries where funds are sent (e.g. local churches or Christian organizations) ● using the money to fund projects that have been developed by local Christians in their own communities, countries or regions ● considering any request, however small ● acting as equal partners with the persecuted

Church, whose leaders often help shape our overall direction

How to find us USA 6731 Curran St, McLean, VA 22101 Telephone (703) 288-1681 or toll-free 1-866-936-2525 Fax (703) 288-1682 Email usa@barnabasaid.org International Headquarters The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK: Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org New Zealand PO Box 276018, Manukau City, Auckland, 2241 Telephone (09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805 Email office@barnabasfund.org.nz

Published by Barnabas Aid Inc. 6731 Curran St, McLean, Virginia 22101, USA Email usa@barnabasaid.org

● acting on behalf of the persecuted Church, to be their voice – making their needs known to Christians around the world and the injustice of their persecution known to governments and international bodies

We seek to: ● meet both practical and spiritual needs ● encourage, strengthen and enable the existing local Church and Christian communities – so they can maintain their presence and witness rather than setting up our own structures or sending out missionaries

We believe: ● we are called to address both religious and secular ideologies that deny full religious liberty to Christian minorities – while continuing to show God’s love to all people ● in the clear Biblical teaching that Christians should treat all people of all faiths with love and compassion, even those who seek to persecute them ● in the power of prayer to change people’s lives and situations, either through grace to endure or through deliverance from suffering

● tackle persecution at its root by making known the aspects of the Islamic faith and other ideologies that result in injustice and oppression of non-believers ● inform and enable Christians in the West to respond to the growing challenge of Islam to Church, society and mission in their own countries ● facilitate global intercession for the persecuted Church by providing comprehensive prayer materials

“Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.”

(Matthew 25:40)

You may contact Barnabas Aid at the following addresses UK 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Telephone 024 7623 1923 Fax 024 7683 4718 From outside the UK Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Email info@barnabasfund.org Registered charity number 1092935 Company registered in England number 4029536 For a list of all trustees, please contact Barnabas Fund UK at the Coventry address above.

Australia PO BOX 3527, LOGANHOLME, QLD 4129 Telephone (07) 3806 1076 or 1300 365 799 Fax (07) 3806 4076 Email bfaustralia@barnabasfund.org

To guard the safety of Christians in hostile environments, names may have been changed or omitted.

Thank you for your understanding.

Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders and obtain permission for stories and images used in this publication.

Barnabas Aid apologizes for any errors or omissions and will be

Germany German supporters may send gifts for Barnabas Fund via Hilfe für Brüder who will provide you with a tax-deductible receipt.

Please mention that the donation is for “SPC 20 Barnabas Fund”. If you would like your donation to go to a specific project of Barnabas Fund, please inform the Barnabas Fund office in Pewsey, UK. Account holder: Hilfe für Brüder International e.V. Account number: 415 600 Bank: Evang Kreditgenossenschaft Stuttgart IBAN: DE89520604100000415600 BIC: GENODEF1EK1 Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland PO Box 354, Bangor, BT20 9EQ Telephone 028 91 455 246 or 07875 539003 Email ireland@barnabasfund.org

Singapore Cheques in Singapore dollars payable to “Olive Aid Trust” may be sent to: Olives Aid Sdn Bhd, P.O. Box 03124 Subang Jaya, 47507 Selangor, MALAYSIA Singaporean supporters may send gifts for Barnabas Fund online via Olive Aid Trust: Beneficiary: OLIVE AID TRUST Bank Name: United Overseas Bank (Malaysia) Berhad Swift Code: UOVBMYKL Location: KUALA LUMPUR Account Number: 140-901-654-0

To donate by credit/debit card, please visit the website www.barnabasaid.org or phone 703 288 1681 or toll free 1 866 936 2525

grateful for any further information regarding copyright.

Unless otherwise stated, Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version®.

Front Cover: Sobia (pictured) and her family have been set free from bonded labor in Pakistan’s brick-kilns, thanks to Barnabas Aid supporters

© Barnabas Aid Inc. 2018. For permission to reproduce articles from this magazine, please contact the International Headquarters address above.

® hope and relief for the persecuted church

arren Buffet, the famous investor, has ten rules for success in business.

The tenth is: “Give unconditional love.” He says that love is the greatest power on earth.

This may come as a surprise in the cut-throat world of money-making.

Yet it probably does not surprise us when we think of our Christian faith.

For Easter, the central point of our faith, has at its heart the self-giving and self-denying love of Christ.

In the upper room, the new covenant was inaugurated. The old covenant, mediated by Moses, had been based on law – the ten commandments. The new covenant needed a new commandment as its basic law. This was a commandment of love; the new people of God were commanded to love one another as Jesus had loved them.

“A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another. ” (John 13:34-35) The sacrificial offering the next day, Good Friday, would be Jesus Himself, the Lamb of God, and the blood offering would be His own blood that was to be shed. Central to His sacrificial offering, enacted in the Eucharist, the Lord’s Supper, is love.

This was Jesus’ supreme act of love, the laying down of His life. This then is the model of His disciples’ love, for we are commanded to love as He loved.

The new commandment, the law of love, was a law without end, a law that had no limits. It was based on agapetos, the sacrificial love of Christ. The disciples, as the first fruits of the new covenant, would embody this love. As Christ loved them, so they must now love each other. When this happened, the world would see and believe.

A few weeks later, the risen and ascended Jesus, sent His Spirit to form the new covenant community, His Church. From the love that His followers showed each other, the world would know that they were His disciples.

In His new covenant, Christ called together a people who were one in the Spirit, not one because of their Jewish descent as in the old covenant. This was to be the new People of God and their new law was to be the commandment to love as Christ loved them.

The new covenant ushers in the Kingdom of God, begun by God Himself on earth, and to be further extended until it is brought to perfection by Him at the end of time.

The command to love God and your neighbors – the greatest command – is fulfilled through the love of the disciples patterned on Jesus. If the disciples love God, from whom is derived all love, then they can love anyone. It they do not love their own, their brothers and sisters, how can they truly love their neighbors?

This was Jesus’ supreme act of love, the laying down of His life... we are commanded to love as He loved

Traveling together in times of trouble

On April 24, Armenian Christians will mark the anniversary of the terrible genocide, which peaked in 1915. In a few short years, an estimated 3.5 million Christians of various ethnicities were killed or died of hardship deliberately inflicted on them by the Ottoman authorities.

During this genocide the beleaguered Christians spoke often of saffar berlik, a Turkish phrase meaning “traveling together in times of trouble.” Saffar means going on a journey or pilgrimage together and berlik means a time of trouble, with the pressure coming from outside.

These persecuted believers drew strength from understanding that they endured their suffering together and that the deadly long march across the Levant, forced on them by the Ottomans, was in some sense a pilgrimage, a journey to their heavenly home and Promised Land.

Together this Easter time, as we remember our persecuted brothers and sisters, we are united in the love of Christ and together we journey to our Promised Land, heaven itself, where there will be no suffering and where we will be enveloped for ever with the perfect love of Christ in His glory.

The story of Pakistan’s persecuted Christians

5 10 Pull-out

In the upper room W

4 Pakistan

In Brief

Nine Christians killed in Egypt church attack

A History of Christian Persecution

part 5: When Christians became the persecutors

12

Barnabas Futures

Re-building lives after famine in East Africa

12 16

Compassion in Action

Delivering the “joy” of the Bible to refugees in South-East Asia

18

In Touch

Young Christians in Wales get baking for Barnabas

18

4 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid

Danger, discrimination, and dhimmitude the story of Pakistan’s persecuted Christians

A Muslim mob torched 170 homes in Joseph Colony, a Christian community in Lahore, in 2013, after an unsubstantiated “blasphemy” allegation

“Pakistan is the second most dangerous country in the world to be a Christian," lamented a senior Pakistani Church leader last year, recalling the cover of an edition of Newsweek magazine which once named Pakistan the most dangerous nation in the world.

P

akistan’s Christians are a suffering, vulnerable minority. They face violence at the hands of Islamist terrorists, discrimination at work and at school, and live with the ever-present threat of “blasphemy” allegations, which have led to Christian communities being ransacked by Muslim mobs. Authorities often turn a blind eye and are sometimes even complicit in crimes against Christians, including the abduction and forced marriage of women and girls.

Targets of terror

On Sunday, December 17, 2017, two Islamist terrorists attacked the morning service at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, killing nine Christians and injuring more than 50. Among those affected were some of the poor and needy families who receive monthly food parcels from Barnabas Aid. Many more might have died had it not been for the courageous efforts of two men who managed to lock the church gates and delay the attackers; grandfather George Masih (63) and 36-year-old father of five, Sultan Masih (not related) were both killed.

Nine Christians died and over 50 were injured when the jihadists, one of whom detonated a suicide vest, deliberately targeted a well attended pre-Christmas service in Quetta. Barnabas Aid is helping the injured and the families who have lost their breadwinner

The birth of Christianity in Pakistan According to tradition, Christianity reached the Indian sub-continent in the first century, and there is evidence for a Christian presence dating back to the third century in early Christian texts. But the early Christian presence in what is now Pakistan was obliterated following the invasion of Islam in the 11th century. Western missionaries brought Christianity back to the region and the first mass conversions, in the 1870s, were among the most despised members of Punjab society, the “untouchable” people who formed the lowest level of the caste system. The Chuhras were viewed not only as inferior but also as unclean. They carried out dirty and menial jobs such as sweeping and observed a religion that was a kind of Islamized Hinduism.

By 1911, there were nearly 164,000 believers in the Punjab region, which today straddles north-west India and north-east Pakistan; by 1935, almost all the Chuhras were Christians and even today, most Pakistani Christians are of Punjabi origin. The term “Chuhra” – which is commonly taken to mean a latrine cleaner – is viewed as intrinsically insulting by many Pakistanis.

In 1947, British India was partitioned into separate Hindu and Muslim states (India and Pakistan). Partition triggered violence and the mass movement of 14.5 million people, as Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs relocated. When large numbers of Muslims arrived in Pakistan, many Christians working in agriculture lost their jobs to the new arrivals. Forced into towns to seek work, typically in low status jobs, many became impoverished.

The Taxila Cross was unearthed in Punjab in 1935. Believed to date from the third century or earlier, it is of major significance to Pakistan’s Christian community, as it provides archaeological evidence of the existence of Christianity before the arrival of Islam The new state of Pakistan, which included what is now Bangladesh, was home to more than half a million Christians.

The flag of the new country carried the traditional Islamic symbol of the crescent and star on a green background (representing the Muslim majority), with a vertical white stripe symbolizing non-Muslim minorities. Pakistan was founded on ideals of equality between Muslims and nonMuslims, but the country’s constitution and laws have been gradually Islamized, eroding the position of religious minorities. Today, Christians in Pakistan account for around 3% of the population (as many as 3.5 million people).

On Easter Day 2016, a suicide bomber attacked Christians celebrating in a park in Lahore – 74 people, mainly women and children, were killed and hundreds injured; pictured is one of the Christian victims in intensive care. Just before Easter 2017, Pakistani security services foiled a similar planned attack on a Lahore church Other terror attacks have caused significantly more casualties: the clock in All Saints Church, Peshawar, remains stopped at the time of the bomb blast which claimed the lives of 127 Christians and injured and maimed many more in September 2013.

Pakistani Christians have endured years of violence from jihadists, but despite this they remain firm in the faith and courageously meet together Sunday after Sunday, knowing they might be targeted and killed.

he clock in All Saints Church, Peshawar, remains T stopped, marking the moment a suicide bomb killed 127 members of the congregation in 2013

Day-to-day violence

Christians are also the victims of day-to-day violence. Stella was the only Christian member of the staff at the medical clinic where she worked in Lahore. One Muslim colleague falsely accused and repeatedly insulted her, but the management at the clinic held Stella in high regard and supported her. On April 25, 2017, Stella’s Muslim colleague attacked her with acid. Stella lost consciousness and required medical treatment. When her family reported the attack to police, the attacker’s relatives threatened them to try and make them drop their case.

Seventeen-year-old Sharoon was beaten to death outside the school office after getting into an argument with a Muslim classmate on August 30, 2017. Students and teachers stood and watched while one boy continued to hit Sharoon as he lay unconscious on the ground.

Sharoon was the only Christian in his year group at the government high school in Punjab.

Christian students in government schools face possible violence and daily discrimination: one examiner assessing a home economics class with Muslim and Christian students refused to touch what the Christian girls in the class had cooked and tipped it into the bin, saying it would make her unclean. The Christian girls failed the exam.

In December 2017, a six-year-old Christian girl was shot and killed when a Muslim moneylender, accompanied by a mob, attacked the home of a Christian family. The family had taken out a loan of 40,000 Rupees ($383) and were struggling to meet the lender’s repayment charges. Police registered a case against the moneylender, but did not arrest him.

The threat of “blasphemy”

Because of the “blasphemy” laws, Pakistani Christians are only one false accusation away from imprisonment, being forced to flee their homes, or even at risk of mob lynching.

In November 2017, five Christian families were forced to flee their village and go into hiding after a Christian teenager was accused of “blasphemy” on a Facebook page designed to mimic a news outlet. The post called for local Muslims to “burn his church and give him the death penalty.” Shortly afterwards a Muslim mob gathered in the village after

Friday prayers and the families fled, fearing for their lives.

In 2013, hundreds of Christians in Joseph Colony, Lahore, were left homeless after a mob ransacked the community, torching 178 homes, as well as Christian-owned shops.

Local Muslims were incited to attack the Christian community after a 65-year-old man was accused of insulting Muhammad; mosque loudspeakers broadcast calls to “kill the blasphemers.”

Under Pakistani law, there are several criminal offenses of “blasphemy.” The two most serious are “desecrating the Quran,” which carries a mandatory life sentence, and “defiling the name of Muhammad,” which

which started when they refused to drink water that she had fetched because she was a Christian. She is being kept in solitary confinement because of fears for her safety.

Worse than second class citizens

Irfan Masih used to clean sewers in Lahore. When he collapsed at work on June 1, 2017, his colleagues rushed him to hospital, but the first Muslim doctor who saw him refused to treat him until his sewagecovered body had been cleaned. The doctor claimed touching Irfan would have made him “unclean” during Ramadan. Irfan died on the hospital floor, as his family desperately tried to wash him and give him oxygen.

The doctor claimed touching Irfan would have made him “unclean” during Ramadan. Irfan died on the hospital floor is officially a capital offense. No executions have yet been carried out, but a number of Christians and others are on death row.

There is no penalty for false accusations and the laws have become a vehicle used to settle personal scores. Non-Muslims are particularly vulnerable to false accusation by Muslims.

Proposals to amend the laws have been met with violent street demonstrations.

Among those on death row for “blasphemy” is Aasia Bibi. Sentenced to death in 2010, she has spent nearly nine years in prison. The most recent attempt to appeal her conviction collapsed when one of the three judges recused himself. Barnabas Aid is supporting Aasia’s family with a monthly food parcel and have helped to purchase a house and fund the installation of a gas supply to the family’s new home; Aasia’s husband and children had to go into hiding after she was accused.

Aasia was the first woman to be convicted under the “blasphemy” laws, after she was accused of insulting Muhammad during an argument with fellow women field-laborers,

Aasia Bibi, on death row

In classical Islam, Christians and Jews – “People of the Book” – living in a Muslimmajority state are dhimmis. While pagans face execution, dhimmis are spared, but become worse than second-class citizens.

Dhimmis are required to pay a humiliating poll tax (called jizya) as a sign of subjugation, have reduced legal rights, and under some Muslim rulers were historically forced to wear distinctive clothing.

Christians in Pakistan have never officially been given dhimmi status, but the gradual Islamization of Pakistan’s laws and constitution has eroded their originally equal status. In lower courts, there is a tendency for the judiciary to believe the word of a Muslim over a non-Muslim, in line with sharia laws which rule that the testimony of a dhimmi is of lesser value.

A tiny number of Christians have held positions of high office in Pakistan, but many more have found it impossible to advance

Irfan on his way to hospital

beyond a certain level in the civil service, armed forces, judiciary, or medical profession.

One Christian who was appointed head teacher of a school in Punjab was beaten up by Muslim teachers in October 2015, who told him “You are a Christian and a Chuhra, so how can you be headmaster and our senior?”

The majority of Pakistani Christians live in poverty, confined to menial jobs with few prospects. Much of the Muslim majority regard them as second-class citizens. Christians’ status as dhimmis is used as a religious pretext to justify discrimination. This negative view of Christians, stemming from Islamic doctrine, reinforces the discrimination of the ancient caste system, which saw the first Chuhra Christians relegated within society.

Saddique Azam was appointed head teacher at a state school in Punjab, but three Muslim teachers refused to work under him and beat him up when he declined to resign

The threat to women

Pakistani Christian women and girls are especially vulnerable to kidnap and sexual violence. Twelve-year-old Monica was kidnapped in August 2016. Four days after she disappeared, local police in Lahore informed her father she had converted and married a Muslim. They produced a marriage certificate, which stated her age as 18. Refusing to be cowed by threats, her father pursued the case

and secured a court hearing (a rarity), where the judge demanded a second hearing be held with Monica present. At the time of writing there has be no second hearing, Monica remains “married” to her kidnapper and her father has died of stress.

An estimated 700 Christian women and girls are kidnapped and forced into Muslim marriages each year. Hindu women and girls are also targeted. Attempts to enshrine protections in law against forced conversions, specifically intended to safeguard Christian and Hindu girls, have been blocked by Islamists.

Bonded laborers

Sameera (16) was kidnapped for two days, drugged and sexually assaulted by a Muslim man known to her family. Police tried to pressure her family not pursue the case, but Sameera is bravely demanding justice

A recent survey of ten brick-kilns in Punjab found that more than 60% of the workers were Christians. Many Christians toil in brick-kilns across Pakistan, working out in the open in nearly all types of weather, making bricks by hand. Frequently the debts hang over families for generations, meaning they lose a cut of their meager pay. While the debt remains, they cannot leave their

Sobia had to work with her father at the kiln making bricks to support the family. She has never been to school. Now they are free

jobs. Effectively trapped, they are extremely vulnerable to discrimination from their employers – some brick-kiln workers have even been sold like slaves from one owner to another.

Through a Barnabas Aid project, a total of 120 brick-kiln families have been freed from their debt in the last six months (see Barnabas Aid Jan/Feb 2018 magazine, p.16-17)

A people betrayed

Pakistani believers are a persecuted, vulnerable minority. Although they have a place on the nation’s flag, they are denied equal status in society and face daily discrimination, seemingly unrelenting violence, as well as the threat of false accusation. Pakistan’s Christians are a people betrayed: by successive governments increasingly in thrall to Islamists and by many in the international community – including in historically Christian countries – who ignore their plight.

When Pakistan was created in 1947 there were high hopes for this new nation. But a state formed with the intention of protecting religious minorities from persecution has seen the persecution of its own minorities gradually increase, to the point where the Christian community is under great pressure.

Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo’s 454-page book A People Betrayed vividly tells the story of the impact of Islamization on the Christian community in Pakistan.

The Cost is $10 (+ P&P).

For more information and to order a copy, please visit www.barnabasaid.org/en/shop/books

10 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid

Islamic State preChristmas church attack leaves nine dead and over 50 injured PAKISTAN

Nine Christians died and over 50 were injured when IS terrorists attacked a church service in Quetta, Pakistan on December 17, 2017.

George Masih (pictured), although elderly, stayed at his post on the gates to face the Islamic State terrorists, and gave his life to defend the congregation. He leaves behind a daughter and two grandaughters Islamist State terrorists killed nine and injured over 50 Christians in a suicide attack on a church in Quetta on Sunday, December 17.

The death toll could have been much higher had it not been for the courageous efforts of two men who managed to lock the church gates and delay the attackers. The two men, grandfather George Masih (63) and 36-year-old father of five, Sultan Masih (not related), were both killed in the attack.

The congregation had gathered for a pre-Christmas service at Bethel Memorial Methodist Church in Quetta, western Pakistan.

Among those affected were some of the poor and needy families who receive monthly food parcels from Barnabas Aid. At least three of the families being supported by Barnabas Aid’s feeding program sustained serious loss. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack.

Barnabas sent emergency funds to help the survivors at Quetta and to assist with medical and other costs.

Christians arrested for celebrating Christmas; district official claims “Christianity is the religion of the Europeans and Americans” LAOS

“In general, Christians are still restricted in this district. They are not allowed to teach from the Bible or to spread their religion to others, because Christianity is the religion of the Europeans and Americans,” stated an official in Phin district, shortly after five Christians were arrested in mid-December.

Authorities in the district in southern Laos arrested four Christians from the same village, along with a pastor from a neighboring village who they had invited to help organize Christmas celebrations. By

inviting the pastor, they had breached regulations which permit believers to celebrate Christmas only within their own village. At the time of writing the five believers have not yet been released.

Laos’ under-pressure Christian minority are not seen as citizens of their own country. Their faith is viewed as a foreign religion by the communist government, which gives Buddhists comparative religious freedom while Christians experience localized harassment and sometimes violence.

Nine Christians killed in church attack

EGYPT

Egyptian Christians endured multiple, organized terror attacks in 2017 Nine Christians were gunned down in an Islamic State (IS) attack on a church in Helwan, south of Cairo on December 29. The attackers were prevented by policemen from getting inside the church, where a service was taking place.

One of the nine Christians murdered was a Nermin Sadik, who was walking her two daughters (aged 11 and 7) to Sunday School at the church. When she encountered one of the attackers, the 32-year-old nurse managed to shield her daughters from the gunfire, but was herself shot dead.

Police captured one attacker while the second, who was wearing a suicide vest, was killed in a shootout in which one policeman also died. A statement on IS media later claimed responsibility for the attack, stating one of its men had been “martyred.”

The attack in Cairo took place a fortnight after IS reiterated previous calls for the targeting of Egyptian Christians, who endured multiple, organized terror attacks in 2017, including the Palm Sunday suicide bombings in which nearly 50 people died.

A History of

Christian Persecution 5

When Christians became the persecutors

A

dramatic shift in the history of the church in the Roman Empire occurred during the fourth century. This century began with “The Great Persecution”1 of 303305, a significant name given how severely Christians had already been persecuted at certain periods under Roman rule. When the century drew to its close, Christianity was the official religion of the Roman Empire and non-Christians were being persecuted.

Three key dates track this process of change.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 312 The first key date was October 27, 312, when Emperor Constantine I, preparing for battle the following day, looked up to the sky and saw a cross of light with Greek words meaning “In this sign, conquer.” He duly won a decisive and careerchanging victory at the Battle of Milvian Bridge and decided to embrace Christianity. This did not, as it turned out, mean laying aside his previous pagan religion, and he retained the title of Pontifex Maximus (High Priest) of the Roman state cult until his death in 337. But he did order that Sunday and Christian holy days be given the same legal status as the pagan festivals, he put the Christian cross on his coins (along with pagan symbols and figures), and he forbade Jews from stoning to death those of their number who became Christians.2 He banned the construction of new pagan temples and later in his reign began tearing down existing ones.

WHAT HAPPENED IN 313 The second key date was just a few months later, in 313, when Emperors Constantine and Licinian jointly issued what is known as the Edict of Milan, to establish religious liberty in the Roman Empire.

Christians were at this time still a minority, but probably quite a decent sized minority. Persecution had not prevented the faith from spreading, perhaps had even encouraged it. Tertullian, famous for the phrase usually misquoted as “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church”,3 also wrote: “We are but of yesterday, and yet we have all the places that belong to you – cities, islands, fortresses, towns, market places, the military camps themselves, tribes, town councils, the palace, the senate, the forum – we have left you nothing but your temples.”4 Tertullian died between 220 and 240, so the growing Christian presence in the Roman Empire that he describes was a century before religious liberty came.

After 312 the church, having both legal toleration and imperial approval, grew rapidly – too rapidly, according to some contemporary leaders.

The church historian Eusebius, who had been bishop of Caesarea Maritima in Palestine since about 313, wrote of “the hypocrisy of people who crept into the church” hoping for the emperor’s favor.5 Adopting the emperor’s religion could do wonders for one’s prospects in society, especially a society built on patronage as the Roman Empire was. As Robert Markus puts it: Eusebius put his finger on the radical novelty of the condition in which Christians now found themselves. There had been rich Christians before the time of Constantine, there had been educated or upper-class people to be found in Christian communities, and in growing numbers during the century before Constantine. Rarely can their Christianity have contributed to their standing in society, their wealth or power. But, from now on, their religion could itself become a source of prestige, and did so, to the dismay of bishops who, like Eusebius himself, were sometimes inclined to look for less worldly motives for conversion to Christianity.6

ii March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid

A hundred years later, bishops were still lamenting the conversions of convenience. Augustine of Hippo wrote of the “feigned” Christians who were joining the churches of his diocese (in modern Algeria). Within a few years of Augustine’s death in 430, almost all educated Roman town-dwellers were Christians, and thus came to an end the “age of hypocrisy” which had begun in 313.

The pagans had already suffered legal pressure for a couple of generations, beginning, as we have seen, with Constantine himself targeting pagan places of worship.

Constantine’s son and successor, Emperor Constantius II, closed all pagan temples and introduced the death penalty for anyone caught performing a pagan sacrifice.

During his reign (337-361), ordinary Christians began to vandalize pagan temples and tombs. After 361 the harassment of pagans waxed and waned until 381 when Emperor Theodosius issued the first of a series of 15 edicts against pagans, steadily increasing the pressure until his death in 395.

CHRISTIANS PERSECUTE EACH OTHER Arianism

An ivory carving from 428 shows a consul from the Western Roman Empire. His clothes are remarkably similar to Christian liturgical vestments, showing how the Christian elite replicated the culture of the non-Christians around them (Source: McManners, The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, 2001, p.63)

As it rose to dominance, Christianity had seamlessly absorbed Roman culture, and the lifestyle of these urban elite Christians was almost identical to that of their nonChristian peers except that the Christians went to church.

The lack of a distinctive Christian identity troubled many thoughtful believers. Committed Christians began to embrace asceticism, building on the traditional esteem for virginity, voluntary poverty and self-denial. Thus monastic communities came into being.7

WHAT HAPPENED IN 380 The third key date was February 27, 380 when Emperor Theodosius I made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire by the so-called Edict of Thessalonica.

More specifically, the Empire’s religion was to be Nicene Trinitarian Christianity.

Sadly and shamefully, the next two decades were marked by violent Christian riots in various cities across the Empire, with the rioters set on destroying pagan temples and their idols.

Theodosius targeted not only pagans but also those Christians whom he regarded as heretics. He defined heretics according to the findings of Council of Nicea (Iznik in modern Turkey), which had been convened by Constantine back in 325 to look at various issues of the day, including Christological questions. The Council affirmed that the three Persons of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, were co-equal and co-eternal, and specifically that Jesus was “of the same substance”8 as the Father.9 They rejected the viewpoint of a priest called Arius who held that Jesus had been created by the Father, and therefore, was not eternal and was of lower status than the Father.

Despite the council’s decision, Arianism continued to thrive throughout most of the fourth century, along with a variant called Semi-Arianism. Even Emperor Constantius was an Arian. Arian Christians and orthodox (i.e. Nicene, Trinitarian) Christians persecuted each other alternately, according to the views of the emperor at the time.

By the end of the century, however, Arianism was declining within the Roman Empire, perhaps due to strenuous persecution by Emperor Theodosius especially after the Council of Constantinople (381) which strongly condemned Arianism.10 Arianism remained popular among the tribes surrounding and sometimes invading the Empire. During the the fifth century it thrived amongst certain Germanic tribes, such as the Vandals, Lombards and Goths (with their subgroups, the Visigoths and Ostrogoths).11 The Vandals invaded Roman North Africa in 429 and occupied it until they were defeated by a Byzantine invasion force 534; they labored for decades to convert the Nicene Christians there to Arianism. Arianism was also strong in southern Europe.

The Byzantine (or Eastern Roman) Emperor Justinian I (ruled 527–565) was very active in fighting Arianism by military force. He attacked both the Vandal kingdom in North Africa and the Ostrogoth kingdom in Italy.

Justinian also organized and codified the mass of preexisting laws issued by himself and previous emperors going back about 400 years, to produce what is called the Codex Justinianus, competed in 529. Numerous laws in

Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 iii

this Codex dealt with religious matters; in fact, the very first law required everyone under Byzantine rule to be an orthodox (i.e. non-Arian) Christian. Other laws secured a dominant status for orthodox Christianity, forbade certain pagan practices, and harshly discriminated against Jews and Samaritans.

By the eighth century, after many wars and laws, Arianism had been largely wiped out and all Christians were Trinitarian.

Other issues

The Arian/Nicene split was not the only internal division in Christianity that led to persecution and violence among Christians. In North Africa, a schism developed about clergy who had renounced their Christian faith during the dark days of persecution under Emperor Diocletian (284-305) while others had stood firm and been martyred.

After the persecution had finished, the question arose about what to do with apostate clergy who now wanted to resume their ministries. When the Edict of Milan was passed, making it 100% safe to be a Christian, the question became even more marked. Donatus Magnus, bishop of Carthage from 315 to 355, led those who felt it would be offensive to the memory of the martyred faithful clergy to allow the apostates to officiate at church services again.

This group became known as Donatists and were probably the numerical majority for a while. They were opposed by the pro-Roman group, who emphasized forgiveness and wanted to see the apostate clergy fully restored to their former roles in the church. The Donatists were persecuted by the Roman emperors in the fourth and fifth centuries, but they survived until Islam arrived and eliminated all forms of Christianity in the region.

In a similar way, a group of Christians who have sometimes been called “Nestorians” were driven out of the Empire in the fifth century because of their Christological beliefs. They moved east to settle in Persia and beyond, where they became known as the “Church of the East.”

In yet another Christological dispute, the Council of Chalcedon in 451 affirmed that Jesus had two natures (divine and human). Many Christians at the time in North Africa and the Middle East believed He had only one nature (divine). These “monophysite” Christians suffered imperial persecution, and the same thing happened in the eighth and ninth centuries to Christians who venerated images.

CHRISTIANS PERSECUTE NON-CHRISTIANS We have already seen how this began as soon as religious liberty was granted in the Roman Empire and accelerated when Christianity became the Empire’s official religion. It is greatly to the dishonor of Christians that this continued.

Jewish people were a frequent target of unprovoked attacks by Christians. As far back as 613, the Visigoth king of Iberia (modern Spain and Portugal) ordered Jews to convert to Christianity or be expelled. Cruel persecution followed for those who remained. The Jews were expelled from France in 1182 and from England in 1290. Again, space does not permit further examples, although there are plenty.

CONCLUSION The shattering impact of Emperor Constantine’s public adoption of Christianity in 312 on church history, indeed on history in general, is ironic, given that his new “faith” appears to have had relatively little effect on him personally. It set in train a destructive struggle between orthodox Christians and heretics, and eventually created the new realities of sword-bearing believers and wars of theology.

It was Constantine’s decision to say he was a Christian, even more than his introduction of religious liberty, that was the turning point which changed the church from poor to rich, from despised to respectable, from shame to honor, from the cross to the sword, from weakness to earthly power, from Jesus in His humility to Christ triumphant, perceived as an emperor whose dominion is the earth and whose servants ruled as governors.

After the Reformation

Doctrinal differences continued to fuel Christian-onChristian persecution and violence through the centuries.

Sadly, the examples are simply too many to list, but readers may be familiar with Protestants and Roman Catholics burning each other at the stake in sixteenth century England, and the many wars of religion in various countries of northern Europe after the Reformation.

This sixth century ivory panel shows Jesus enthroned like a Roman emperor or god. The cross in His left hand replaces the sword or globe carried by earthly rulers as a symbol of their power (Source: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, exhibition catalogue, Imagining the Divine, 2017, p.41)

iv March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid

Accepting without demur the traditions and trappings of Roman culture, the church seemed to have little trouble adapting to her new place in society. It was soon reflected in art and culture. Philippa Adrych and Dominic Dalglish point out that: “Zeus on his throne was replaced by the new ruler of heaven and earth, and the emperor, long associated with a variety of divinities, now imparted his image onto the figure of Christ.”12 In this way the church and Christianity were transformed, reversing the New Testament principle of land as the commonwealth of Israel, people as the ekklesia of God, and the Temple as the inner shrine of our hearts filled with the Holy Spirit. Instead the church embraced the Old Testament doctrine of physical land to be seized or kept by military force, of her people as a nation characterized by nationalism of the worst kind, and the construction of majestic buildings for earthly places of worship.

Thus Christianity created Christendom, an empire where every citizen must be subservient to a sovereign lord crowned as a Christian emperor, and where new laws were created to ostracize, torment or even kill all those who disagreed with the state orthodoxy, whether heretic, Jew or pagan.

The stage was set for internal schism and fragmentation.

With this fragmentation came a new era of armed conflict, in which the church, having been persecuted, now became in her turn a persecutor. The victims were pagans, heretics and all those whom the Christians in power conceived to be foreign or demonic; the idea of viewing the other Christians as brethren with whom they disagreed on some theological points seems to have been rare.

As we have seen, centuries of warfare between Christians followed, particularly in North Africa and southern Europe, where the Vandals, Visigoths and Ostrogoths, who had embraced a Christianity based on Arianism, now found themselves in conflict with the Trinitarian Christians. It was a fight to the death, and finally Arianism was eliminated. The Anglo-Saxons and Franks were spared this, never having been Arians.

Christianity became firmly embedded in empire, nation and city-state, in the process becoming unrecognizable.

What did it now have in common with those early believers, who had met in simplicity and faith, filled with the Holy Spirit of God and worshipping their crucified Lord? (Acts 2:42) The internecine conflicts within the church from the fourth century onwards, leaving Christians weak, selfabsorbed and divided, paved the way for the rapid Islamic military conquest of the region in the seventh century.

1 See “A History of Christian Persecution: Part 2 AD 33-312 Hated by the World” in Barnabas Aid (July-August 2017) especially p. iv.

2 Although Constantine’s Christianity was probably not a genuine personal faith, his powerful mother Helena does appear to have been a committed Christian.

3 Tertullian wrote: “Plures efficimur, quoties metimur a vobis; semen est sanguis christianorum.” A plain translation of his Latin is: “We multiply whenever we are mown down by you; the blood of Christians is seed.”

It comes from the final chapter (chapter 50) of his most famous book, Apologeticus pro Christianis [Apology on behalf of Christians], which was a defence of Christians against the defamation and persecution they were suffering at the hands of the Roman authorities.

4 Tertullian, Apology, chapter 37.

5 Eusebius, Life of Constantine, book 4, chapter 54.

6 Robert Markus, “From Rome to the Barbarian Kingdoms (330-700)” in John McManners, The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, New York, Oxford University Press Inc., 1990, pp.62-3.

7 Markus, “From Rome to the Barbarian Kingdoms (330-700)”, p.67 8 μοούσιος (homoousios) in Greek 9 The Nicene Creed, produced at the Council of Nicea and used in many churches today, emphasizes this in the passage: “We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father.”

10 The Council of Constantinople made some amendments to the Nicene Creed, creating the version used today.

11 Other Germanic tribes such as the Franks and Anglo-Saxons (who migrated to what are modern France and England respectively) were never Arians, but converted from paganism straight to a Trinitarian form of Christianity.

12 Philippa Adrych and Dominic Dalglish, “Religions in the Roman World” in Jaś Elsner and Stefanie Lenk, Imagining Divine: Art and the Rise of World Religions, Oxford: Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, 2017, p.41.

BARNABAS AID HOPE AND RELIEF FOR THE PERSECUTED CHURCH USA 6731 Curran St, McLean, VA 22101 Telephone (703) 288-1681 or toll-free 1 (866) 936-2525 Fax (703) 288-1682 Email usa@barnabasaid.org New Zealand PO Box 27 6018, Manukau City, Auckland, 2241 Telephone (09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805 Email office@barnabasfund.org.nz

International Headquarters The Old Rectory, River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire SN9 5DB, UK Telephone 01672 564938 Fax 01672 565030 From outside UK Telephone +44 1672 564938 Fax +44 1672 565030 Email info@barnabasfund.org

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UK 9 Priory Row, Coventry CV1 5EX Telephone 024 7623 1923 Fax 024 7683 4718 From outside the UK Telephone +44 24 7623 1923 Fax +44 24 7683 4718 Email info@barnabasfund.org Published by Barnabas Aid Inc.

6731 Curran St, McLean, Virginia 22101, USA © Barnabas Aid Inc. 2017

Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 11

Christian girl from President attends Christmas service Chibok abducted and and tells Christians “married” to Muslim NIGERIA “you are our family”

Officials demolish two church buildings in Shaanxi province CHINA

EGYPT

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi attended a Christmas service at a new cathedral outside of Cairo and affirmed his support for Christians.

The President told the congregation: “Destruction, ruin and killing will never be able to defeat goodness, construction, love and peace … you are our family. You are part of us. We are one and no one will ever drive a wedge between us.”

Egypt’s president has frequently and publicly condemned attacks on Christians, who make up more than 10% of the country’s population.

Christians fear another wave of persecution IRAQ

Christians in Iraq fear “another wave of persecution that will be [their] end,” despite the Iraqi government’s recent declaration of victory against Islamic State, according to a senior church leader from the southern city of Basra.

Speaking at a meeting in December 2017 on intercultural dialogue sponsored by the European Parliament, the leader requested Western politicians to lobby the Iraqi government to protect the country’s Christian minority, who are under threat from “robberies, gang rapes, torture, and murder.”

Describing the situation in Basra, he said that Christian experience with the Muslim community was mixed. He stated that the majority of Muslims were “moderate and … don’t care for religious fanaticism … [treating] Christians equally with dignity and respect.” He added however: “There are fanatics who say loudly in the mosques that we are blasphemers … the sons of pigs and monkeys.”

17-year-old Linda Maina Linda Maina, a 17-year-old Christian from Chibok, was abducted and forcibly married to a Muslim, after she traveled to attend a family member’s wedding just before Christmas. Her abductor then used a sharia court hearing to stall the family’s attempts to secure her release.

Linda went missing shortly after setting off to travel to another town to be a bridesmaid at her cousin’s wedding. On December 28, 2017, her father received a summons to attend a sharia court in Maiduguri, around 70 miles north of Chibok. At the hearing, Linda’s father and his lawyer were not given an opportunity to state their case. Linda, who was present, was not allowed to speak in court and lawyers for her abductor claimed Linda had “always wanted to marry a Muslim man.”

Linda’s father asserted that his daughter “had never said she wanted to get married to anyone, not to me or to anyone in the family. All she wanted was to go to a University … She just finished her secondary school in June.”

At the time of writing, Linda has not been returned to her family.

A church pastor who is helping the family to try and secure Linda’s release stated, “Christian families continue to suffer this kind of issue. This is about the fifth case this year alone ... There is a deliberate, calculated plan by Muslims to destroy as many Christian girls as possible.”

The town of Chibok is in the heartland of Muslim-majority northern Nigeria and was the location of Boko Haram’s infamous kidnapping of 274 school girls in 2014, most of them Christians.

Global Christian News

Christians in China have faced increasing pressure since Xi Jinping became president in 2013. Several church buildings have been demolished Officials in Shaanxi province demolished two church buildings within two weeks over the New Year.

Local authorities in Zhifang village in Lauyu district, demolished a church on December 27, 2017, after claiming that it was built on illegally occupied land.

Almost 100 local Christians protested the action, some chanting “Freedom of belief,” while official documents proving that the church – built in 1999 – had approval to use the land were posted on social media. Authorities subsequently sent officials to apologize and discuss compensation.

Less than two weeks later, on January 9 (after officials had apologized for destroying the church in Zhifang), authorities used dynamite to demolish a large church in the city of Linfen, also in Shaanxi province. They had previously claimed the church violated building codes. Officials initially denied that the demolition had taken place, while police present during the event pressured witnesses to remain silent.

Since Xi Jinping became president of China in 2013, there has been an increase in persecution of Christians.

Churches have been demolished in areas and Communist Party officials have been “encouraging” Christians to replace Christian posters in their homes with portraits of the president.

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12 March/April 2018 Barnabas Aid

From hunger to hope Barnabas Aid’s transformational new projects in East Africa

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”

Jeremiah 29:11

East African Christians have fled famine and conflict.

Now Barnabas Aid is working to re-build lives for the future

Barnabas Aid March/April 2018 13

A

fter helping East African Christians to survive the worst drought in living memory, in 2018, Barnabas Aid is moving from feeding to rebuilding lives for the refugee community in Uganda. The aim is to enable the refugees to become self-sufficient economically, well educated, and strong in the Lord.

Spiritual needs There are 158 South Sudanese pastors among the refugees in one camp. Like the men, women, and children in their congregations, they have suffered great hardship and witnessed the collapse of communities and the tragedy of families becoming separated. Through local Christians, Barnabas Aid will provide short courses to help the church pastors receive healing from their own trauma and teach them how to minister to other traumatized people.

A small stipend will enable each pastor to establish a congregation within the camp and pastor and teach the people.

Barnabas Aid will also provide Bibles in the local Bari language – many of the Christian refugees have lost everything they owned.

$10 $35

could buy a Bible in a local language

Re-building lives

Barnabas Aid, in discussion with East African church leaders, has developed a three-fold approach to re-build the lives of these brothers and sisters in 2018.

This will mean “investing” in three areas: spiritual needs, education and economic uplift.

Education Thousands of children in the camps need an education. Even though their immediate needs are being met, without learning the skills they will need to prosper when they reach adulthood they are at risk of becoming trapped in dependency and poverty.

In Uganda, Barnabas Aid aims to build ten Christian schools and support 30 teachers to work in them. In Kenya, Barnabas Aid will enable children to get an education by covering the cost of school fees, uniforms and books.

$128

could pay a teacher for one month

$16,226

Economic uplift For many of the Christian refugees, receiving food aid is a new experience.

They used to provide for themselves, until the drought and famine came.

They have had to leave land that is now barren, or no longer safe to return to, and even those that have the skills to grow their own food do not have the tools and basic inputs, such as seeds, they need.

Barnabas Aid is stepping in to provide small grants or loans to enable Christian families to begin growing their own crops, or start up their own businesses, so they can once again provide for themselves.

$50

could provide seeds and farming tools for one family

could build a three-classroom school

could provide three days of trauma counseling and training for a South Sudanese refugee pastor

Barnabas Aid will provide short courses to train pastors to minister to the many believers who have experienced great trauma; pictured is the choir at a church service for South Sudanese refugees in Uganda

Thousands of Christian refugee children need an education. Barnabas Aid will build ten schools in Uganda, to equip and inspire a new generation of believers who would otherwise be unlikely to have any opportunity to go to school

Barnabas Aid will supply seeds of beans and maize, tubers of sweet potatoes and cassava, plus hoes and machetes

SUDAN

SOUTH ETHIOPIA SUDAN UGANDA

KENYA

SOMALIA Stressed Crisis Emergency Famine

The United Nations officially declared a famine in South Sudan in February 2017, but parts of Kenya and Uganda were also severely affected. At one point in 2017, over 2,000 refugees were crossing from South Sudan into Uganda every day East Africa was struck by the worst drought in living memory in 2016. The drought led to famine. Plains turned to arid desert and crops and cattle died, leaving hundreds of thousands of starving people with no choice but to flee on foot in the hope of finding food.

International intervention proved insufficient for those on the brink of starvation, but Barnabas Aid, responding to the pleas of church leaders in Kenya and Uganda, was able to feed more than 170,000 Christians, saving countless lives.

Through Project Joseph, Barnabas Aid provided 18.6 million meals (about 3,585 tons of food) for hungry Christians in East Africa, especially refugees from war-torn South Sudan living in northern Uganda.

Barnabas Aid supplied 18.6 million meals to starving Christians in South Sudan, Kenya and Uganda through Project Joseph

From hunger to hope, from facing a famine to imagining a future, Barnabas Aid’s new work in East Africa will bring life-giving transformation to Christian refugees left destitute by drought.

how barnabas is helping Warm homes for Christians in Turkey Barnabas Aid supported over 430 Christian families taking refuge in twelve cities across Turkey by helping with gas and electricity bills over the winter months, averaging $29 per family per month.

The families had fled genocide in Iraq, and intense persecution in Afghanistan and Iran. Zia lost everything when jihadists repeatedly destroyed his shop in Iraq; eventually he and his family fled. Most of the families have similar experiences of persecution and loss. Few of the refugees are able to find work to provide for their families. With little or no income, they are at the mercy of the unforgiving Turkish winters, where freezing temperatures can drop to -40°F, and snow can remain on the ground for up to four months.

Barnabas’ project partners made 28 trips (typically covering 30 miles) to deliver the aid to the refugee families. Barnabas also provided Christmas presents to 1,500 Christian refugee children.

Displaced Christian children return to school in Nigeria Her father’s body “was left for dogs and pigs to eat up,” said a Barnabas project partner. Jihadists murdered 14 year-old Mary’s father, and then prevented her family from burying his body. Mary is one of 40 Christian children in northern Nigeria’s Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps that Barnabas maanages.

They have fled from attacks by Islamist militants like Boko Haram and Muslim Fulani herders. Life in the camps can be hard, with often inadequate accommodation, food, health, and education facilities. Tuition and other education costs, food, school uniforms, stationery, mattresses, bedding, and mosquito nets average $23 per child per month. The project also provided $11,050 to fund improvements at two camp schools, supplying computers, basic science lab equipment, books and medicines for the school clinic.

“We want to appreciate God and you for your lovely kindness to us to see that we go to school,” said a thankful Joseph, another of the sponsored IDP children.

Zia (pictured left) and his family. They needed help from Barnabas Aid with the cost of their fuel bills in the long cold winter

Jihadists murdered Mary’s father, and burned her school and home. But with Barnabas’ help, she is now getting an education again

$49,837 for gas and electricity for needy Christian refugee families during winter

$24,553 for feeding, accommodation, and education costs for displaced Christian children

Project reference 54-1324(Winter needs for refugees in Turkey) and 54-1367 (Christmas presents for children)

Project reference 39-772 (Victims of Violence in Nigeria)

Helping the Egyptian church through micro-loans Christians in Egypt often find it hard to get work because of discrimination.

A micro-loan project, funded by Barnabas, has enabled nine Christians to set up small businesses so they can support their families. The focus is on helping the widowed, disabled, or others with particular needs.

Amira realized that her village lacked shoe shops. She used her micro-loan to open a shoe shop on the ground floor of her house. She and her husband can now afford to send their five children to school. They and other assisted Christians are now out of poverty and have “an income and self-confidence,” says Barnabas’ project partner.

As beneficiaries pay back their loans, the money is re-used to help more Christians benefit from the program.

“It is always seen as a positive if the church can do good things for its people,” said a Barnabas project partner.

Moneer has repaired his tuktuk with funds from Barnabas, and can once again carry passengers to earn his living

$18,690 for a micro-loan program for poor rural Christians Project reference 11-424 (Development Projects for Christians in Egypt)

Motorcycles help Pakistan’s church leaders safely reach their flock Barnabas Aid provided motorcycles for 15 church leaders in Multan District. The pastors minister across a wide, mainly rural, area in southern Punjab province, where some of the scattered Christians live more than 31 miles from their nearest church.

The pastors previously endured long, perilous journeys to visit them.

Pastor Waheed regularly visited up to 30 families across five villages, which was time-consuming and exhausting by public transport. Every journey he made in the evening or at night brought a risk of being attacked by Islamists, and his family constantly feared for his safety.

After the provision of motorcycles costing $477 each, pastoral journeys are safer, quicker, and cheaper. “My family is also very happy that I can come back home during the daytime,” says Pastor Waheed.

Pastor Waheed and 14 other church leaders in Multan can now visit their congregations more regularly and safely

$7,150 to purchase motorcycles for 15 pastors Project reference 41-033

Enabling displaced Christians in South-East Asia to access Bibles “Our family had one copy of the Bible, but we had to run for our lives when the war came to our village … We haven’t seen [a] Bible since 2011, but now God has shown us His miracle,” said a grateful believer, receiving a Bible in their language.

Many thousands of Christians from conflict-ravaged areas of a SouthEast Asian country are living in camps, after being forced by violent persecution to flee their homes, often with nothing but the clothes they were wearing. These Christians have for decades, had little to no access to the spiritual guidance and strength provided by the Word of God. Barnabas has covered the transportation and distribution costs for 20,000 Bibles to Christians in the camps. The ultimate goal is to ensure that every displaced Christian family has a Bible. The presence of the Word of God has “changed the life of [displaced] camp people from sorrow to joy,” a Christian in one of the camps testified.

Barnabas Aid has delivered 20,000 Bibles to Christians displaced in camps where access to Bibles has been difficult. Some have gone years without even seeing a Bible

$19,550– towards the cost of the delivering 20,000 Bibles to displaced Christians Project reference XX-1042

A kitchen for converts!

“Usually our Christian gatherings are during a meal,” says a pastor in a strongly restricted country of Central Asia.

The pastor’s family home serves the underground Christian community here – all converts from Islam – as a place to gather and worship.

Many are unemployed due to discrimination, and others among them remain secret believers for fear of persecution from the authorities, their employers, and friends.

Up to twelve Christians gather about four times a week at the home. Eating together is an important part of their fellowship and practical care.

Unfortunately, the original kitchen was located away from the house and extremely dilapidated, with no floor, poor plumbing, and a leaking roof. It was very difficult to provide food for the church meetings – especially in the winter – and the pastor’s family were constantly falling ill. But on his small income it was impossible to do anything to improve the situation. For a long time church members prayed for a solution.

Then Barnabas provided funds to build, insulate, and equip a kitchen that connects to the meeting room of the main house.

A kitchen from Barnabas helped persecuted Christians from a Muslim background gather to worship and give each other emotional and spiritual support over a meal

$1,520 to build an adjoining kitchen to a house used for Christian gatherings Project reference 00-637 (Church Buildings Fund)

18 March/Apr il 2018 Barn abas Aid

Have you got your copy of Praying for the Persecuted Church 2018?

Barnabas Aid’s Praying for the Persecuted Church is an invaluable source of information and inspirat ion to help you, your small group, or you r church to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters around the glob e.

It includes details about 39 countri es and seven areas of particular need, alon g with suggested prayers which can be used to prompt your own, as the Lord leads you.

Free copies are available from our USA office (contact details inside front cover of this magazine). A schedule inside the back cover shows how the booklet can be used for daily devotions during Lent, if desired.

Strength

tears hs, my little My little sig n a d ache, ear t move Make my h le sighs ars, my litt reak – My little te turn and b d in m y m Make d yet O Lord And yet, an me lies beyond My brother beaten Bruised and torn – r shoulders Racked and ke upon you ta se a le p , O Lord s and mine, All his grief g enough u are stron For only Yo all.

To bear them r Sylvia Taylo K U e, ir sh ln Linco

In Touch e Could your church tak for up an Easter offering Barnabas Aid?

rings ember Christ’s own suffe This Easter – as we rem church ur yo ld cou – s resurrection ou joy s Hi e rat eb cel d an bring hope ng for Barnabas Aid, to take up an Easter offeri midst of the in ing o are celebrat and relief to believers wh t? ris their faith in Ch persecution because of urch, inded the Corinthian Ch As the Apostle Paul rem ry eve rs, ffe dy of Christ su when one part of the Bo ffering rinthians 12:26). For su Co (1 part suffers with it und aro ns tia ris that fellow Ch believers, the knowledge and m the th wi ing them, stand the world are praying for t. en at encouragem supporting them is a gre

Other ways to d onate You can now give by a simple text ! Text the word “Give” followed by the amount to (703) 810-76 81 (example: Giv e 100 to donate $100 or Give 25 to dona te $25).

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Mission Statement

The mission of Barnabas Aid is to support Christians where they are in a minority and suffer discrimination, oppression and persecution as a consequence of their faith. Our goal is to strengthen Christian individuals, churches and their communities by providing material and spiritual support in response to needs identified by local Christian leaders.

We do this by making their needs known to Christians around the world, and encouraging prayer, advocacy and financial giving in support of these brothers and sisters in Christ, working with existing local Christian organizations.

Barnabas Aid channels this flow from donors to the needy recipients with a minimum of overhead. All gifts are monitored to ensure they are used in line with the stated need.

In accordance with biblical teaching, we believe that Christians should treat all people of all faiths with love and compassion, even those who persecute them.

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The Death of Western Christianity

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Drinking from the poisoned Wells of the Cultural Revolution The Death of Western Christianity surveys the current state of Christianity in the West, looking in particular at how Western culture has influenced and weakened the Church. It looks also at how Christianity is increasingly under attack in Western society, and becoming despised and marginalized. It points out how faithful Christians are being targeted by legal and other means and advises how they should prepare themselves for greater persecution to come. This is a timely, prophetic book.

ISBN: 978-0-9977033-4-4 Number of Pages: 224 Cover: Paperback RRP: $16.00

The New Civic Religion Humanism and the future of Christianity A new civic religion poses a serious challenge to the Church today. In this important new book Dr. Patrick Sookhdeo charts the rise of this aggressive secularism based on humanist beliefs. He outlines how Christians need to respond to this dogmatic and hedonistic religion with a properly informed ‘Christian mind’. This is ideal for group study.

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ISBN: 978-0-9977033-3-7 Number of Pages: 208 Cover: Paperback RRP: $15.00

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To order this book, please contact your nearest Barnabas Aid office (addresses on inside front cover).

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usa@barnabasaid.org hope and relief for the persecuted church

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