Barnabas aid May June 2019

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barnabasaid.org MAY/JUNE 2019

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

SOUTH–EAST ASIA

Bibles build up longsuffering believers

NIGERIA

300 killed in attacks, while God intervenes to save 72 lives

COMPASSION IN ACTION

“Tea garden” Christian schools give new hope in Bangladesh

LANDS THAT GOD WILL NOT FORGET God is faithful to His people in Central Asia

® hope and relief for the persecuted church

The Barnabas Aid Distinctive 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)

● 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

● Channeling money through existing

structures in the countries where funds are sent (e.g. local churches or Christian organizations)

● tackle persecution at its root by making known

● Using the money to fund projects which have

been developed by local Christians in their own communities, countries or regions

● Acting as equal partners with the persecuted

Church, whose leaders often help shape our overall direction

● Acting on behalf of the persecuted Church, to

New Zealand PO Box 276018, Manukau City, Auckland, 2241 Telephone (09) 280 4385 or 0800 008 805 Email office@barnabasfund.org.nz

barnabasaid the magazine of Barnabas Aid Published by Barnabas Aid Inc.

6731 Curran St, McLean, Virginia 22101, USA Email usa@barnabasaid.org © Barnabas Aid Inc. 2019. For permission to reproduce articles from this magazine, please contact the International Headquarters address above.

the aspects of the Islamic faith and other ideologies that result in injustice and oppression of Christians and others

● inform and enable Christians in the West to

● Considering any request, however small

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

the persecuted Church by providing comprehensive prayer material ● safeguard and protect our volunteers, staff,

partners and beneficiaries

● keep our overheads low

● meet both practical and spiritual needs

Christians to Christians (we do not send people, we only send money)

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

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:

● Channeling money from Christians through

How to find us

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

respond to the growing challenge of Islam and other ideologies to Church, society and mission in their own countries

● facilitate global intercession for

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

“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 04029536 South Africa Office 301, 3rd Floor, Eikestad mall, 43 Andringa Street, Stellenbosch 7599 Telephone +27 21 808 1668 Email bfsa@barnabasfund.org Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland PO Box 354, Bangor, BT20 9EQ Telephone 028 91 455 246 or 07875 539003 Email ireland@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 grateful for any further information regarding copyright.

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

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

Front Cover: Christians in Central Asia

® hope and relief for the persecuted church

When God sends chariots of fire

G

od is glorified when His faithful people endure persecution, even unto death.

Sometimes He chooses to glorify His Name by dramatic intervention to save their earthly lives. A marvelous catalog of heroes of the faith, which we read in the eleventh chapter of Hebrews, moves seamlessly from the latter to the former halfway through verse 35. From the divine perspective, it seems that all are blessed, whether by dramatic or miraculous intervention or by the honor of suffering and martyrdom.

Barnabas Aid often reports on the anti-Christian violence which has beset northern Nigeria for many years. Whether it is Boko Haram militants or Fulani herdsmen, the pattern is all too familiar – armed men descend on a Christian-majority village, killing all who do not manage to run away. Then they set fire to houses, churches, food stores, and any school or clinic there may be. Thousands of Christians have died in such raids, especially women, children and elderly who cannot run fast. Far more have become displaced and destitute.

A spate of such raids in February and March left nearly 300 Christians dead* in Kaduna State alone; brutal rapes and maiming with machetes were also reported. In Karamai village, 41 people died, nearly all women and children plus a few elderly and blind men. In Kajuru district the bodies of 73 women, some pregnant and 101 young children, including babies on their mother’s backs, were interred in mass graves.

Through a very reputable and down-to-earth international mission society, news of a contrasting event emerged from Nigeria at the same time. It concerned a group of about 500 Christians from a Muslim background. They had gathered together in these unusually large numbers after suffering attacks by Boko Haram Islamist militants. But then they were attacked again. The majority managed to get away, but 76 were captured and taken to a Boko Haram camp where they were tortured.

The four male leaders of the captured believers were asked by Boko Haram to renounce their Christian faith and return to Islam, or they would be shot. The four refused and were duly shot, in front of their families and friends. A week later the four widows of the dead men were asked to renounce their faith and return to Islam, or their children would be shot. They were given time to think over this dreadful choice, but, while they were agonizing together that evening, the children came running into the room, excitedly telling their mothers that Jesus had appeared to them and had told them all would be well.

Jesus then appeared to the whole group of 72, and told them not to fear for He would protect them. He said they should not renounce Him but should stay strong, and that He was the Way, the Truth and the Life.

The next day the Boko Haram militants lined the children up against a wall and asked the four mothers whether they would deny Jesus and return to Islam. All said, “No.” The soldiers prepared their weapons to take aim at the children, but suddenly began clawing at their own heads and screaming “Snakes! Snakes!” They ran from the scene, some of them falling to the ground dead.

One of the Christian men reached for the gun of a dead militant but a little girl, at four years old the youngest of the children, put her hand on his arm to stop him. “You don’t need to do that,” she said. “Can’t you see the men in white fighting for us?”

Some have asked whether such a wonderful story can be true. It is a good question. We all know that God can do such miracles, as for example when He covered a mountainside with horses and chariots of fire to save Elisha from the king of Aram (2 Kings 6:17). But not every claim made about the persecuted Church in the twenty-first century is accurate.

Therefore, the local Christians in Nigeria set up a Discernment Committee to look into the story told by the 72 survivors. One of the actions of the Discernment Committee was to create a book of 26 pictures of Jesus. The book was shown to each of the 72 men, women and children, who were asked to choose the image that most resembled the man who had appeared to them that night. All 72 picked the same one.

So let us rejoice that our sovereign Lord still acts in power to save His people from those who plan to harm them. We may wonder why He does not do this always; why He allowed four husbands and fathers to be slaughtered. As Christians, we know that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8) and can take comfort that He is working all things together for the eternal good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). *Further details on page 12

Contents

4 Compassion in Action

“Tea garden” Christian schools give new hope in Bangladesh

4 6

Central Asia

Resourcing the growing Church in Former Soviet Union countries of Central Asia

Pull-out

Editorial

A History of Christian Persecution Part 11: South Asia

11

Bibles for south-east Asia

Over 100,000 Bibles distributed to Christians hungry for God’s Word

12

“You have given the light to us and from now on the people can gain wisdom.”

13 16

In Brief

Almost 300 Nigerian Christians slain by Fulani militants

16 18

In Touch

Donations flow in for Cameroon water project

how barnabas is helping Kazakh center helps rejected converts Many Muslims and others are turning to Christ in Kazakhstan, often saved through church ministries that help them overcome drug and alcohol problems. But most still face rejection by society at large, especially if they have left Islam to follow Christ. One particular church is constructing a building for these new believers, where they can live while gradually getting used to their new life and lifestyle.

During this time, the church helps them find a job, get their paperwork sorted out, and – when possible – restore relationships with their families.

The ministry is self-financing as far as everyday needs are concerned. They breed Kazakh wolfhounds, which brings in a good income. They also have a small farming business which provides food as well as work for some of the new believers. But these projects do not generate enough income to pay for the construction costs, so Barnabas stepped in.

When an afterchurch sandwich means so much to Sudanese refugees During the terrible civil war in Sudan, when the mainly Christian South tried to resist sharia law being imposed by the Islamic government of the North, around 5 million South Sudanese fled their homeland. Some settled in Egypt, but live in great poverty. Barnabas helps five churches in Cairo to feed Sudanese worshippers, who often travel for hours on an empty stomach to get to church.

Tens of thousands of sandwiches and wraps of all varieties, from beans to falafel, are provided each year for hundreds of Sudanese believers. Memi (19) really appreciates the food as “a sign of God’s kindness in the very bad circumstances we live in.”

Christina (22) escaped from Sudan along with her parents and seven brothers and sisters. She missed many years of education due to the civil war and has only recently completed high school in Egypt. She says, “Our church meeting lasts three hours on a Sunday, and we are so glad to get sandwiches after church.”

“Abide and Bear Fruit” women’s conference in Uganda Over a thousand Christian women from across northern Uganda were encouraged and taught at a conference in December 2018 on the theme “Abide and Bear Fruit” (John 15:1-17). Barnabas Aid assisted with the conference expenses.

One session was entitled “My daughter and the Muslim influence.” Many African Muslims actively seek out Christian girls to marry and convert to Islam. Some are paid money for each Christian wife they take (more if she is a pastor’s daughter). This conference session warned and equipped Christian mothers to be aware of the danger of their daughters being swept off their feet by romantic Muslim men. It also covered how to help a daughter who has already married a Muslim.

“I now know what to do when my daughter has a Muslim boyfriend. I thought we were worshipping the same God with Muslims. My eyes have been opened,” one mother said.

Church pastor with one of the Kazakh wolfhounds

$8,611 for construction materials and tools; building work done by volunteers from church and ministry Project reference: 00-637 (church and ministry building fund)

Feeding young Sudanese Christian refugees in Egypt

Christian mothers learned how to protect their daughters in an Islamic environment

$6,158

$5,499 Project reference: 48-1138

Project reference: PR1387

Strengthened and encouraged. This is what we often hear from Christians who have received support from Barnabas Aid. Thank you for making this possible. Here are just a few examples of the many ways we have recently helped persecuted and oppressed Christians.

“Tea garden” schools provide education in remote area of Bangladesh Beautiful tea plantations, also known as “tea gardens,” in the remote hills of Sylhet in north-east Bangladesh are tended by tea-garden workers who struggle due to low wages, illiteracy, and lack of skills. Many of them are Christians.

Barnabas Aid supports five small Christian primary schools in this area by providing part of the funding towards the salary of the five teachers.

In 2018, there were 188 students (96 boys and 92 girls) attending these five schools.

One of the Christian tea-garden workers is Nilmoni, a widow with two small children at one of the schools. Her son Shuvankar hopes to be a teacher so that he can help his under-developed local community to thrive in education. He is grateful to Barnabas Aid for supporting the school, without which he could not “learn the light of education.”

Strengthening churches in former Hindu Kingdom of Nepal The Church began as a mere mustard seed in the Hindu Kingdom of Nepal in 1951, hidden but growing … and growing … and growing. Barnabas is helping to fund theological education courses in Nepal to train and equip new believers and leaders. In the latter half of 2018, 70 tutors were trained and 288 new students enrolled on the Bible training courses.

One church member explains the effect of the courses, “I used to go to church, read the Bible and sing worship songs but that was all; I hadn’t really understood anything. Now, I can see a lot of change in my life. I have come to understand and appreciate the importance of prayer, Bible study, church and fellowship, as well as the methods of Bible study.”

Singa Bahadur Tamang gives a pastor’s perspective. After studying, his church members are now “helping the church through house fellowships, finances and different kinds of works.

Earlier, they had never asked about the work of church.”

Barnabas Aid May/June 2019 5

Food and bedding for displaced Christians in Myanmar (Burma) Barnabas is continuing to provide essential items to help make life bearable for persecuted Kachin Christians struggling in the difficult conditions of the internally displaced people (IDP) camps. A recent grant paid for blankets ($14 each) and sleeping mats ($6.90 each) at three remote camps, bringing warmth and comfort, as the cool season began, when temperatures can drop significantly.

“Mang” (68) hurriedly fled with her family when the army attacks spread to her village seven years ago. Leaving with nothing, they were “starving, scared and cold” yet believed God was looking after them. Mang expressed her gratitude, “I know God heard my prayer and even people from far away are praying for us and giving us these gifts.”

Dried fish and fermented soybeans were also distributed to displaced families. These simple foods are high in protein. “Paw” (67) said, “Our future is in God’s hand. Thank you for sharing a message of hope with us, and thank you for the delicious dried fish and soybeans.”

Shuvankar with his sister and their widowed mother

Pastor Singa Bahadur Tamang

Mang was delighted with her new blankets, replacing very old ones which were “not warm anymore”

$2,747 towards the salary of five teachers for one year

$19,771 to train and equip church leaders and members

$69,148 for relief for 5,400 people

Project reference: PR1438

Project reference: 89-946

Project reference: 75-763

Central Asia

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LANDS THAT GOD WILL NOT FORGET

Barnabas paid half of the cost of a seminar for the leaders of about 100 small home fellowships in Kazakhstan (For security reasons, we sometimes do not publish the names of individuals, church groups and specific locations in the former Soviet Union nations)

Central Asia

T

he persecution of Christians in former Soviet Union countries in Central Asia is, of course, bad news.

But, ironically, it is also good news because it is evidence that people here are embracing the Good News of Jesus Christ in greater numbers and faithfully following Him. Christian communities historically existed in this vast region, but they were destroyed by the invasion of Islam that began around the eighth century. In the twentieth century, religions here were brutally suppressed by the communist Soviet Union. When that broke up in 1991, not only did new countries spring into existence, but also fledgling churches of Muslim converts emerged, which now fight for their spiritual life, oppressed by secular dictatorships and also extremist Muslims.

Barnabas Aid supported 49 projects in this region in 2018, 42 of which are ongoing, providing our brothers and sisters in Christ with support and resources to help them with the practical problems they face, to encourage them in their faith and to enable them to continue to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Barnabas Aid May/June 2019 7

reportedly attempted to disguise the religious motivation for the attack by claiming Eldos was beaten for playing loud music.

Small churches forced to break law

Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan all require churches to register, but the rules of registration are impossible for small congregations to meet, thus rendering them unlawful. From 2011, a religious organization in Kazakhstan is required to have 50 members who live locally, while in Kyrgyzstan, a 2009 law demanded 250 signatures from members in order for registration to be granted, and in Turkmenistan, as of April 2016, 50 founding members were required. Turkmenistan can trace its Christian roots back to the third century, but now it is an isolated and closed nation, dominated by Islam and a presidential personality cult.

Persecution gets personal in Kyrgyzstan

Often in Central Asian countries the most painful persecution is inflicted on Christians who have converted from Islam. These Christians are often embroiled in a constant struggle with the local Muslim community and even family members who turn against them.

In Kyrgyzstan, a landlocked nation of six million people of whom 86% are Muslim, persecutors are often protected or encouraged by corrupt police officers.

In May 2018, a Kyrgyz Christian woman, recently converted from Islam, was held captive in her home and beaten by her Muslim family for refusing to renounce her faith in Christ. A church was burned down in the same area on January 2, 2018. When police arrived to investigate the arson, they demanded to know why the members attended church instead of going to the mosque.

They even suggested the believers might have set fire to their own building.

In October 2018, three Muslim men almost killed Eldos, a 25-year-old Christian convert from Islam, in an attack in the Issyk-Kul region of Kyrgyzstan. The assailants attempted to force him to say the shahada (the Islamic creed), the reciting of which is considered by Muslims to be conversion to Islam. Eldos was viciously beaten and left bleeding with severe concussion, a fractured jaw, broken teeth, an eye injury and a suspected brain hemorrhage. The police

Children attend a Sunday School at a town in southwestern Kyrgyzstan

In Kazakhstan, churches which are unable to register are subjected to police raids on their meetings and members’ homes; fines, detention and imprisonment; seizure of church equipment and Christian literature; and the closure of church buildings. In April 2018 even registered churches in the west of the country were asked to submit the full names, ages, places of study and state-assigned identification numbers of all people under 18 who attended church meetings. A government official admitted that the demand for personal data, “was not sent to Muslims … just to Christians.”

In a town in a Muslim-dominated area of south-western Kyrgyzstan, Barnabas provides monthly financial help to the pastor of a thriving Christian community. The network of small fellowships of Muslim-background Christians is forced to operate in semi-secrecy due to strong opposition from local mosques, social ostracism from the Muslim community and even threats of violence.

Central Asia

8 May/June 2019 Barnabas Aid

1. Azerbaijan 10 million (96% Muslim, 3% Christian) 2. Kazakhstan 18.5 million (70% Muslim, 26% Christian) 3. Kyrgyzstan 6 million (86% Muslim, 14% Christian) 4. Tajikistan 8.9 million (90% Muslim, 1.5% Christian ) 5. Turkmenistan 5.5 million (89% Muslim, 9% Christian) 6. Uzbekistan 30 million (93% Muslim, 4% Christian) Figures vary according to sources; these are estimates.

R U S S I A

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SAUDI ARABIA

The pastor and his wife visit the homes of Christian families who converted from Islam, encouraging them to stand firm in their faith.

The pastor also holds regular gatherings in his own house, and there is a children and young people’s ministry. “We have good contacts with local people and visit them at home and share the Gospel and read the Bible. Some of them have started to visit our Sunday Christian gatherings,” the pastor told us in January 2019.

Christian businesses protect against poverty

Christian converts from Islam are often persecuted by being denied work. In Kyrgyzstan, many businesses employ only Muslims and insist that they actively practice Islam. This means many Christian men, who cannot accept these conditions, are forced to leave their communities to search for work, leaving their wives and children behind and their small churches weakened by their absence.

In one remote Kyrgyz community, Barnabas Aid provided the money for five struggling Christian families from Muslim backgrounds to buy cattle. The families were blessed by the help of a non-believer who knew the cow market.

He secured the best cows for the lowest prices, enabling the families to buy 18 animals.

“When we brought one of the brothers five cattle, his children couldn’t sleep because they were looking at cows all night! All the family was very happy,” said one of the Christians.

The cows produce milk of course, but, more importantly they produce manure that is processed using earthworms to make biohumus compost, which is sold in the spring.

“No one in our region works in the production of bio-humus and it is an extremely valuable product,” said one of the Christian men.

The cows mean these brothers in Christ can remain with their families and continue to play important roles in their local Christian fellowships.

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MONGOLIA 3 4

I N A C H INDIA

Building the church, brick by brick

Because of their poverty, Central Asian congregations often struggle with the costs of their meeting places. Barnabas Aid therefore assists with buying, constructing, renovating or equipping church buildings. Church members often contribute their labor to help with the construction or decorating.

In 2018 in Tajikistan, a very poor nation which is estimated to be 90% Muslim and just 1.5% Christian, Barnabas funded the installation of a new heating system at a church so that very young and elderly worshippers can attend worship during the freezing winter months.

Radiators and new windows were provided to keep out the cold in a building shared by several congregations, in another Central Asian country.

Often Barnabas supports registered church buildings, which are few in number, but can then be shared by many congregations. Substantial relief was given to construct a new church building in Kazakhstan, which is now shared by four congregations. Having a permanent building is very important for Christians in Kazakhstan. A permanent building enables a church to begin the process of registration so that they can meet legally.

Strengthening pastors through training

A crucial aspect of Barnabas’ work in Central Asia is enabling local church leaders to get the ministry training and Bible teaching they have often had no opportunity to gain. This is especially helpful to those caring for new believers facing persecution.

A week-long retreat for an association of pastors in Kazakhstan was funded by Barnabas in March 2018. It was held in a designated tourist area in the mountains, as the authorities are less likely to interfere in such places.

Such gatherings can also help train pastors in in a wide variety of skills: how to resolve conflicts in church, help people with family problems, and improve security to avoid being persecuted.

Central Asia

Barnabas Aid May/June 2019 9

An extra benefit of these training gatherings is that the isolated, hard pressed church leaders and workers can encourage one another.

“Kazakhstan is very big country and most of our church leaders don’t have any communication with each other or with senior leaders of our association,” one of the organizers told Barnabas.

“Some of these pastors are on the verge of emotional breakdown. This retreat helps them to recover emotionally and spiritually.”

Around 93% of the population of Uzbekistan are Muslim. In the fourteenth century, Tamarlane, who is celebrated as a hero among most Uzbek people, almost entirely eradicated Christianity. Despite the somewhat more tolerant attitude of the central government, Christians – especially converts from Islam – still face persecution from other sources such as Muslim relatives, local government officials and Islamist extremists.

Gathering to pray in a private home remains illegal and those who are caught usually find themselves in court the next day and then having to pay a fine. Praise God – the fines have become much smaller since Mirziyoyev came to power.

Illegal to give the gift of God’s Word

A team of pastors from Kazakhstan visited Mongolia, with Barnabas’ support, to hold a seminar for Kazakh converts from Islam who live there In 2018, we also funded a three-day seminar in Kazakhstan to help train local small-group leaders from about 100 home fellowships, caring for about 600 Christians. “My home church is on the verge of collapse. I wanted to leave the ministry. I am grateful that such good people arrived and held a seminar,” said one of the pastors, who was spiritually uplifted and motivated to continue his ministry. Muslimbackground believers often chose to meet in small groups rather than larger ones, so as not to draw attention from the Muslim majority.

Hope for Uzbekistan with new president

For many years, Uzbekistan was the harshest Central Asian country in its treatment of Christians, but President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who came to power in 2016, is much more tolerant of religious activity than his predecessor. In 2017 there were official celebrations in Uzbekistan to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation and, for the first time in almost two decades, local congregations and church buildings have been able to get registration, so that they can function legally.

The first Uzbek Bible became available in 2017, and in that year 3,000 were sold legally by the Bible Society of Uzbekistan. Five hundred of these were financed by Barnabas Aid. “It is important for us because these copies are permitted officially for use and cannot be confiscated,” said a local Barnabas contact.

A Christian man was fined two weeks’ average wages in January 2019 for giving an Uzbeklanguage copy of the New Testament to a woman as a gift. A court ordered that the book be destroyed.

Using a New Testament for “missionary purposes” is a crime, according to the government’s Committee for Religious Affairs.

At the police station the man was informed that his case was being dealt with by the local “Struggle with Extremism and Terrorism” Department and he was being charged with breaking two separate laws. These were Administrative Code Article 184-2, which refers to the illegal production, storage or import of religious material for distribution, and Article 240-2 banning proselytization.

South-eastern Uzbekistan borders Tajikistan. As in Uzbekistan, the Tajik authorities make efforts to prevent Muslims getting Christian literature.

In January 2019, 5,000 calendars sent to Christians in registered evangelical churches in Tajikistan were burned by the authorities.

The calendars contained Bible verses and the authorities told a church leader that the number of calendars was much higher than the number of Christians believed to be in the country.

Bible verse calendars for 2019, seized and set on fire by the Tajikistan authorities

Tajikistan authorities record the burning of 5,000 calendars containing Bible verses

Central Asia

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Import and distribution of religious literature must be approved by the Tajikistan authorities and similar confiscations have led to Christians being imprisoned. Such as Pastor Bakhrom Kholmatov, a father-of-three in his early 40s, who was jailed in 2017 for three years after police confiscated “subversive” hymn books from his church.

Vital medical assistance supported by Barnabas Aid brought great help to povertystricken Christians and church leaders in another Central Asian country. Christians face so much persecution that it has an adverse effect on their health. Barnabas funded a medical team that visited a remote region where there was a church. The team stayed for a week, using the church building itself as a temporary clinic.

More than 600 Christians and 46 pastors from nearby villages visited the clinic and received medical assistance free of charge.

“Christians brought their unbeliever friends and it was good witnesses. It helped us to show them Jesus’ love,” a local Barnabas contact told us.

2,042

Christians in three Central Asian countries received theological and other leadership training with the assistance of Barnabas Aid in 2018

14,500

Bibles and other items of Christian literature were provided by Barnabas Aid in two Central Asian countries in 2018

Looking to the future

Christians in many of the former Soviet Union countries are embroiled in a constant struggle to follow their faith and in many areas they are denied the basic freedom to meet together to worship freely. However, since the fall of the Soviet communist regime, thousands of Muslims have turned to Christ, hundreds of new churches have been planted in many people-groups and there is great hope for more good news in the future.

Donations to the Central Asia General Fund (ref. 00-1125) will be used to help a variety of projects in Central Asia, some of them too sensitive to write about.

AZERBAIJAN:

From persecutor to believer A cow played an unlikely role in the life of Rena, who turned from being a persecutor to being a follower of Christ in a town in Azerbaijan, a nation which is 96% Muslim. Rena attends a growing church, which receives help from Barnabas Aid with the cost of renting a meeting place. She shared her testimony with a local Barnabas Aid contact.

Rena was furious that her sister and mother had become Christians and she scorned them and screamed at them, “Will you shame us among people, maybe you will even put a cross on your house?”

Her mother simply held out the New Testament and said, “If you knew about this book, you’d want to read it.”

One day Rena lost her cow and spent three days searching in vain for the animal.

She told Barnabas that on the third day, she thought, “They say Jesus Christ is alive. If this is true let my cow return to me, and I will believe in Him. “When it got dark we went along the road and in lights from cars I saw something running toward us. It was my cow! Then I said, ‘Lord, I believe that You are truth’ and when I came back to my courtyard with the cow I said, ‘My cow has been found and Jesus Christ made it happen!’

“From that day I am a Christian and I am following Jesus,” Rena told us.

The church has now planted two new churches in a city and a village in Azerbaijan and in November 2018 celebrated the first anniversary of their official registration as a church. Their application had previously been rejected six times!

A woman is baptized in Azerbaijan in 2018

The church that Rena attends in Azerbaijan celebrated the anniversary of its registration in November 2018.

The church’s application to register was rejected six times before its success

A children’s ministry at a church in Azerbaijan has benefited from Barnabas helping pay two-thirds of the cost to rent additional rooms

A History of

Christian Persecution The Taxila Cross was discovered in 1935 near the site of the ancient city of Sirkap, near Taxila, Pakistan. Probably dating from the second century AD, the cross is treasured by Pakistani Christians as a tangible sign of the long Christian heritage of their country

11

South Asia

Early Christian presence 1

The Christians of South India have a strong tradition that the Gospel was brought to the Indian sub-continent by the apostle Thomas, in 50 or 52 AD. The Mar Thoma Christians of Kerala believe that he founded churches in seven towns and won thousands of converts from various castes. Tradition also says that he suffered many false accusations and other kinds of opposition. Eventually he was stabbed to death at Chennai for refusing to worship the Hindu goddess Kali.

The Thatta Nagar Fakirs of Sindh, in Pakistan, also believe themselves to be descended from converts baptized

by Thomas at Thatta (near modern Karachi). They claim to possess books and other artifacts that would prove this link but do not show these to outsiders.2 The earliest extant written source about Thomas in South Asia comes from the Syriac Church and was probably written between 180 and 230 AD. This describes Thomas preaching in the villages of the territory of King Gundapharos, a real historical figure. His capital was Sirkap (near Taxila in modern Pakistan) and he probably ruled from 21 to 50-60 AD. According to this document, both King Gundapharos and his brother became Christians, and Thomas later moved on to evangelize in another Indian kingdom where he was martyred.3 Whatever the details of earlier times, there is strong documentary evidence that Christianity had reached parts of the sub-continent by the beginning of the third century. A document written around 196 AD mentions Christians among the Kaishans who were then ruling a territory equivalent to modern Afghanistan and most of Pakistan. By 225 there was a bishop of Baith Lapat (later Gundeshapur, now Shahabad, in north India) caring for Indian Christians who had been converted by missionaries from Persia and Mesopotamia. There was also a Christian community in Baluchistan (in modern Pakistan). The ancient Chronicle of Seert (or Saard) records that Bishop Dudi of Basra “went to India, where he evangelized many people.” This was probably in the last five years of the third century.

In 325, John the Persian signed the Nicene Creed “on behalf of [the churches] in the whole of Persia, and in the great India…” Twenty years later a group of about

400 Christians including clergy and lay people, men, women and children, migrated from Edessa to southwest India. Their spiritual leader was Bishop Joseph, who had seen in a dream that the Indian Christians were being humiliated and persecuted, and needed help.

Practical organization of the group was by a Christian businessman called Knai Thoma (Thomas of Cana).

The Middle Eastern newcomers taught, encouraged and built up the faith of the beleaguered Indian Christians, converted many other Indians to Christianity, and erected church buildings. However, the Knananites, as they became called, never intermarried with Indian believers. Their community now numbers about 300,000 and continues to maintain its ethnic distinctiveness and also a consciousness of their Jewish origins. At a later date they were persecuted by Muslims. Still later they were persecuted by the Portuguese who tried to eradicate their Jewish customs and rituals.

In about 525, an Alexandrian merchant known as Cosmas Indicopleustes (Cosmas the India-Sailor) reported that there were churches in Malabar, in Kalyan (near Bombay), in the Ganges valley and among “the rest of the Indians.” He also reported that there was a church in Sri Lanka, but that it was composed entirely of immigrant Christians from Persia, not indigenous Sri Lankans.

Meanwhile the church in sixth century Afghanistan was flourishing, with bishops in nine cities.

Missionaries from the East Syriac Church in Persia were very effective in bringing the Gospel to South Asia.

But in Hindu areas they faced a counter-offensive from Brahmins determined to halt the advance of Christianity, not by violence but by creating new Hindu legends and forging “ancient” pillar and rock inscriptions.

Arabs, Mongols and the elimination of the Church in the north-west

According to some sources, the first battle between Muslims and South Asians occurred in 643, when an Arab army defeated the King of Zabulistan (in modern Afghanistan). The following year a similar clash occurred in Sindh – again the Muslims were victorious. This region was fought over for two centuries, until the Muslims established their rule.

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When Genghis Khan (1162-1227) united various nomadic tribes from Mongolia, he sowed the seeds for the growth of the largest land empire there has ever been. What is now Afghanistan and part of Pakistan were conquered by the Mongols in the mid-thirteenth century but soon the Mongol Empire split into four separate empires. Afghanistan and Pakistan fell into the territory of the Ilkhan Empire, which was the southwest portion of the old unified Mongol Empire. In 1282 Ahmed Tekuder became sultan of the Ilkhan Empire. He had been born into a Christian family, but converted to Islam, changed his name from Nicholas to Ahmed, and used his power as sultan to propagate his new religion. Tekuder’s Islamization efforts were not popular and he was overthrown in 1284.

In 1295, under Sultan Mahmood Ghazan, whose mother was a Christian, the Ilkhan Empire adopted Islam as its state religion. Ghazan began his reign by persecuting non-Muslims.

Jews and Christians were forced to pay the classical Islamic jizya tax as a sign of subjugation and many were reportedly massacred. Two years later, an important Mongol ally, who had helped Ghazan gain his throne, was killed, after which Ghazan reversed his religious policies and began to punish religious intolerance and try to build good relations with non-Muslims.

But the period of respite for the Church in Afghanistan and Pakistan did not last long. By the end of the fourteenth century, Christians had been effectively eliminated by the fearsome Timur (also known by the names Timur Lenk, Tamerlane and numerous other variations).

under Portuguese rule, asking, “send me two learned priests who should bring with them the chief books of the Law and the Gospel, for I wish to study and learn the law and what is best and most perfect in it.” Missionaries were duly sent and Akbar allowed them to preach and make converts; he even donated funds to build a church in Lahore in 1600.

Emperor Jehangir

Akbar was succeeded in 1605 by his son Jehangir. He wore a golden crucifix around his neck and began his reign by being even more favorable to Christians than his father had been.

However, he was also more favorable to Muslims than his father had been, and sometimes tried to force Christians to apostatize. When the Portuguese Goans seized a Mughal ship in 1613, Jehangir’s attitude to Christians took a sudden turn for the worse. He cut off his financial support for Christian clergy and closed the church buildings in Lahore and Agra that he had previously supported with generous gifts. Life became so difficult for Christians in Lahore that in 1614 they all moved to Agra. The next year good relations were restored between Emperor Jehangir and the Portuguese, and a few years later Jehangir stepped in to prevent Muslims in Thatta burning down the new church building there and murdering its priest.

In 1624 the church in Lahore was reopened, however, it seems that the Lahore refugees in Agra never returned home.

Emperor Shah Jahan

A new phase of Muslim invasions began in the year 1001 when the Turkic Mamluk leader Mahmud of Ghazni (in modern Afghanistan) made the first of his many military incursions into north India.

His successors continued to conquer eastwards across north India. A sultanate was set up in Delhi in the early thirteenth century, ruled according to sharia: Hindus and Christians were subjugated as dhimmi (conquered non-Muslims in an Islamic state) and required to pay jizya.

The Turkic Muslim dynasties of north India prevented the Mongols from penetrating further south into the sub-continent but continued to advance further south themselves. In 1344, the southward advance of the Muslim armies was halted by an alliance of Hindu states, but by this time Christianity had in all likelihood been more or less eliminated from north and central India.

A Christian presence remained in south India and has continued unbroken until today.

Jehangir’s son succeeded to the imperial throne in 1626, taking the title Shah Jahan (king of the world). He had tried to rebel against his father four years earlier and been disappointed that the Portuguese refused to support him. As soon as he was emperor he took his revenge by cutting off the funding that his father had paid to the Portuguese at the Mughal court. After ruthlessly dealing with various other enemies, he returned his focus to the Portuguese missionaries and in 1632 ordered the destruction of the Portuguese settlement at Hugli in Bengal. A Mughal army of 150,000 besieged Hugli, which was defended by just 700 Indian Christian troops and 300 European troops.

After three months, Hugli fell and more than 4,000 Christians were captured. Many of these Christian captives were killed, some were sold as slaves, some were forcibly converted to Islam and others converted voluntarily to save their lives.

In about 1633, Shah Jahan ordered that all Christian places of worship should be closed and destroyed. Around this time, he also issued a decree forbidding conversions from Islam.

Christian worship was also banned. After a few years Shah Jahan allowed some churches to be rebuilt and missions to be re-opened.

Emperor Akbar

Emperor Aurangzeb

Turkic Muslims and the elimination of the Church in north and central India

For much of India and for many centuries, Muslim elites ruled over a population consisting mainly of Hindus, with a Christian minority embedded within it. The treatment of Christians (and Hindus) depended on the whim of the ruling emperor. The Mughal4 Emperor Akbar (ruled 1556–1605) was an exceptional person and fascinated by religion of all kinds. He abolished jizya, thus creating equal status for all his subjects whatever their religion. In 1579, he sent to Goa for Christian missionaries to bring him the Christian Scriptures, which was

Shah Jahan intended that his eldest son, Dara Shikoh, should succeed him. Dara Shikoh followed a mystical type of Islam and was keen for all religions to coexist in harmony, But in 1658 one of his younger brothers, Aurangzeb, defeated him in battle and seized the throne from their father.

From his youth Aurangzeb had been a very devout and serious-minded Muslim. He embraced a classical form of Islam that was very conservative and extreme. In 1668, he began to issue a series of decrees enforcing a strict form of

Pull-Out sharia, closing Hindu schools and destroying Hindu temples.

All non-Muslim public religious displays were banned, but Christians suffered only scattered incidents of harassment, mainly focusing on foreign missionaries.

Indigenous Christians continued under Mughal rule, and the Mughals continued fighting other local rulers. In 1735, it was reported from Lahore that Christian officers formed the elite of the Mughal army and were famed for their loyalty and courage – and even more so for their Christian piety, which the enemy apparently found the most frightening thing of all.

Sultan Hyder Ali

Hyder Ali (1722-1782) ruled Mysore, one of the kingdoms in South India. Also operating in the region were the Portuguese, whose strength was declining, and the British whose strength was increasing.

In 1748, Hyder Ali laid siege to the fort at Mangalore, in Portuguese territory. Inside the fort were around 80,000 Indian Christians who felt doubtful that the Portuguese could defend them against Hyder Ali’s Muslim forces. Hyder Ali offered to save the lives of the Christians if they would surrender to him, but they refused, choosing instead to trust in the British promise to come and rescue them. Unfortunately, the British never showed up, and the fort fell to Hyder Ali. Infuriated that the Christians had looked to British military help instead of surrendering to him, Hyder Ali sent 60,000 of the Christians to walk 202 miles to his capital Srirangapatna, near Mysore. Only 20,000 of them arrived, 20,000 are known to have perished on the way and the other 20,000 remain unaccounted for.

Tipu Sultan

Hyder Ali was succeeded by his son Tipu, usually referred to as Tipu Sultan, who continued killing non-Muslims on a similar scale to his father. In Mangalore, he killed about 25,000 Hindus and at least 25,000 Christians.

Tipu Sultan also tried to convert both Hindus and Christians to Islam. Some Christians he compelled to convert by threatening to cut off their ears and noses. Another of his methods was forced circumcision. In 1784 he circumcized 30,000 Christian men (some sources say 50,000).

Despite this, Tipu Sultan is highly acclaimed in India for his military successes against the British. It was only when he was betrayed by a close aide, who had been bribed by the British, that Tipu was finally defeated and killed at Srirangapatna in 1799. The victorious British troops were commanded by Colonel Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington.

Sadly, the death of Tipu Sultan did not bring an end to the violence, as the British continued their efforts to subdue India.

The following year, for example, Wellesley drowned 5,000 Indians in the Malpurba river when he attacked a military camp on July 30, 1800, with all the rest of the occupants of the camp either killed in other ways or taken prisoner. Those captured included women and children as well as men.5 More than three centuries later, Tipu Sultan is, in a sense, still responsible for ongoing violence in the area he ruled. His name reverberates powerfully in Karnataka, his native state, where Hindu protests and court cases have occurred every year since the state government decided in 2014 to mark Tipu Sultan’s birthday on November 10 with

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an annual public celebration. Some people have even died in the Hindu-Muslim rioting.

British rule

The defeat of Tipu Sultan in 1799 was the beginning of the long process that eventually led to British government rule in India (as opposed to rule by Britain’s East India Company). During the next century and a half, British control largely prevented organized religious persecution in the sub-continent.

An exception to this was, of course, the persecution of individual converts by their families. Western missionaries followed in the wake of British military conquests in India, but the foreigners saw little fruit from their evangelistic efforts.

The isolated converts were mostly rejected by their families, meaning that they were dependent on the missionaries and often lived in the mission compound. Some were killed.

Another exception was the “Indian Mutiny” or “Indian Rebellion” of 1857. This uprising was strongly motivated by the concerns of both Hindu and Muslim Indians that the British were trying to impose Christianity on them. There were, of course, many other triggers, not least the racist treatment of Indian troops by their British officers, but the Indians’ overriding desire to protect their religions has not been properly recognized until now. William Dalrymple, who looked at 20,000 rebel documents from the time, concluded that the mutiny was basically a war of religion: “There were no doubt a multitude of private grievances, but it is now unambiguously clear that the rebels saw themselves as fighting a war to preserve their religion, and articulated it as such.”

When rebel Indian soldiers entered Delhi on May 11, 1857 they hunted down and killed not only the British but also all the Indian Christians they could find, most of whom would have been recent converts from Hinduism or Islam.6 Given that the British (and all white people) were considered to be Christians, this was in effect an attempt to exterminate the Christian presence. The following year Rev. William Owen published a book recording the courage and faithfulness of many Christians who were severely persecuted or killed during the uprising because they refused to deny Christ. These Christians included Indians (from Muslim, Hindu and Sikh backgrounds) and British (Owen makes a careful distinction between those who were Christian believers and those who were not). He also points out that many Indian Christians, for example in South India, Bengal, and the northwest, responded to the outbreak of the mutiny by expressing their loyalty to the British and offering to help them in any way they could.

There were also instances of non-Christian Indians protecting the Indian believers e.g. Hindus protecting Christians from attack by Muslims.7 Owen also notes with sorrow that there were some Christians who saved their lives by apostatizing, especially among the British.

It is difficult, if not impracticable, to compare the number of apostates among the English with those from among the native converts. It does appear, however, from a careful examination of the various statements recently collected, that converted Hindoos and Mohamedans have been true to the standard of the cross in a larger proportion

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that those who were born and brought up in our Christian land … it is most gratifying to know that among the native converts the lapsed are very few compared with those who have remained steadfast in the hour of trial. In some places there were two or three who apostatized where there were scores who remained steadfast.8 British people were greatly shocked by the “Indian Mutiny” and many saw it as divine punishment for the sins of Britain as a nation. A “day of national humiliation” was held in Britain on October 7, 1857 with special church services. Different preachers identified different national sins, but many missionminded Christians considered that the foremost was the failure of Britain to evangelize India more effectively. Indeed, the East India Company had positively nurtured Hinduism.9 It is interesting to contrast this with the Indian viewpoint that Indians had been subjected to aggressive state-sponsored conversion by the British.

After the 1857 uprising, the reputation of Western missionaries was seriously diminished. At the same time, British colonial government was formally instituted, taking the place of informal rule by the East India Company. A new way of governance was established, which involved local elected bodies and Indians participating in the administration of the country. The rule of law was very evident, with religious groups controlled by civil law – for example, preventing rival Hindu sects from engaging in violence against each other.

This appears to have opened the way for greater indigenous leadership of Christian outreach in India. This in turn led to a focus on reaching the lowest strata of society, such as the “untouchables” and the tribal peoples. (Western missionaries had mainly evangelized the higher castes.)

In 1870, mass movements to Christianity began in South India, especially among the “untouchables” within the Telugu and Tamil peoples. In 1873 mass conversions began in the Punjab, again among the poorest people, through the witness of Indian evangelists.10 Persecution was rare for these converts, who had been converted by other Indians rather than by Westerners. After half a century the dramatic rate of church growth slowed down, which coincided with the beginning of Gandhi’s activism around 1920.

After independence

India was given independence from British rule in 1947 and was simultaneously partitioned into a Hindu-majority

state (India) and a Muslim-majority state (Pakistan). In the panic and confusion that followed, as some 15 million people urgently uprooted themselves to move across the newly announced borders in one direction or the other, it is estimated that at least a million people died. Christians were seen as “neutral” and some Hindus and Muslims took to wearing crosses, hoping that they would not be attacked by followers of the other major religion. Many real Christians were killed.

The various modern countries of South Asia, with their Hindu, Muslim, or Buddhist majorities, each have their own story of discrimination, harassment or other pressures on their Christian minorities, varying in degree from place to place. In most cases this pressure has significantly increased in recent decades, but space does not permit inclusion of this information here.

A more complete version of this article can be found in Patrick Sookhdeo’s latest book Hated Without a Reason: the remarkable story of Christian persecution over the centuries, McLean, Virginia, Isaac Publishing, 2019, chapter 12.

1 For further information on the early Church in South Asia, see Patrick Sookhdeo, A People Betrayed: the impact of Islamization on the Christian Community in Pakistan, Christian Focus Publications and Isaac Publishing, 2002. Available from your nearest Barnabas Aid office or online: https://barnabasaid.org/en/shop/product/a-peoplebetrayed 2 John Rooney, Shadows in the Dark, Rawalpindi, Christian Study Centre, 1984, p.45.

3 The details of the martyrdom are different from those of the oral traditions in South India.

4 The Mughal emperors were descendants of Timur.

5 R.G. Burton, Wellington’s Campaigns in India, Indian Army Intelligence Branch, 1908.

6 “Indian mutiny was ‘war of religion’”, interview with William Dalrymple, BBC News website’s Soutik Biswas, last updated 6 September 2006.

7 William Owen, Memorials of Christian Martyrs and other Sufferers for the Truth in the Indian Rebellion, London, Simpkin, Marshall and Co., November 1858.

8 Owen, pp.28-29.

9 Brian Stanley, “Christian Responses to the Indian Mutiny of 1857”, in W.J. Sheils (ed.), The Church and War: Papers Read at the TwentyFirst Summer Meeting and Twenty-Second Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society, Studies in Church History 20, Oxford, Basil Blackwell, 1983, pp.279-281.

10 Sookhdeo, A People Betrayed, pp.55-57.

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Bibles for south-east Asia

Precious Bibles sow “millions of seeds” in south-east Asia

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Bibles for south-east Asia

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Pastor John’s congregation is growing rapidly in the joy of the Lord

“T

Pastor Michael, a former child soldier, said the Barnabas Aid Bibles will “build up” the people

hank you all for sending the Light, the Word of God, to our people. God knows the greatest need of our people and He touched and used you all to provide Bibles with hymns for us.”

These were the words of 70-year-old Pastor “John” who, for 46 years, has ministered to Christians in a remote region of south-east Asia that has been riven by internal conflict for decades. Christianity arrived in the region more than 100 years ago, but few believers there have been able to get even a glimpse of a Bible.

A small number of villages had a single, treasured copy of the Scriptures in their mother tongue, shared between all the villagers. Other believers only had verses that were painstakingly copied by hand, or learned by heart. All Bibles had to be carefully hidden by these isolated and impoverished hill tribe Christians. If discovered, the Scriptures were seized and burned by the military and government authorities who have persecuted them for many years.

Young people in Mary’s village stopped using drugs after the Bibles arrived

For 40 of the 46 years of Pastor John’s ministry he had no Bible and barely enough money for food. He carefully saved money for seven years and, in 2010, he was finally able to buy a Bible for about $32.40 – at least two months’ wages for those who have regular paid work in this region of south-east Asia.

Pastor John’s cherished Bible was the only one in his village. He shared the Word of God from it diligently but he acknowledged that because access to the Scriptures was so limited, “our spiritual standards have grown very slowly.”

Now his congregation is growing rapidly in the knowledge of their faith and joy in the Lord, thanks to Barnabas Aid supporters. Through your generous donations, we have distributed 32,485 Bibles to Christians in the region, enough for one per family.

This work is part of our mission to sustain God’s people in places of persecution and pressure around the world with the gift of Scripture. Pastor John expressed his thanks, saying, “You have given the Light to us and from now on the people can gain wisdom.”

“You have given the Light to us and from now on the people can gain wisdom.” said Pastor John.

Bibles for south-east Asia

Pastor Mark thanks Barnabas Aid supporters for “sowing the best seeds to the best ground”

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Pastor Luke said the new Bibles have given “water to those who are thirsty”

Pastor “Michael” was a child soldier, given a gun by an ethnic militia at the age of nine. At the age of 20 he lost his way after a battle and was taken in by a pastor and accepted Christ. Now aged 61, he serves as a pastor but said that even illegal drugs were easier to obtain than a Bible in his area. “Drugs destroy lives, but the Bible builds up lives,” he said. “To get a

Rachel says God has answered Christians’ prayers for Bibles through Barnabas Aid supporters

Bible is the most difficult thing. Thank you so much for your donation of free Bibles.

These will build up our people.”

Other churches have seen “great changes” since the Scriptures arrived. “Mary” told Barnabas that the young people at her church were very rebellious, with some even falling into taking drugs. She said, “After we received the Bibles, they started

Christians get in line excitedly to finally hold their own Bible, as a consignment of precious copies sent

by Barnabas Aid arrives in a remote area of south-east Asia

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reading the Word and learned to fear God. They now obey their parents, stopped taking drugs. Now in our village, there are no more drug dealers left.”

Pastor “Luke,” 46, faced many dangers when he ventured into non-Christian areas to share the Gospel. Three times he fled from

“You have given water to those who are thirsty,” said Pastor Luke. a barrage of stones, five times he was beaten by village leaders and once he was punched and beaten by a gang of youths who kept him locked in a room for seven days without food.

But his greatest difficulty was not being able to obtain a Bible – even on the rare

occasions he saw one for sale, the cost of up to $33 was simply beyond his reach.

“Most village people do not have income, but they just eat from their farms. Farm workers work eight hours a day and they only make about $2.50 so it is very difficult to own a Bible.” All that has changed with the arrival of the Bibles, free of charge, from Barnabas Aid. Pastor “Mark” used to be one of the few people in the area to have a Bible, but it was seized and burned by the police in 1991. A convert from Buddhism, Pastor Mark was once jailed for two months for sharing the Gospel with soldiers at an army camp, but he continued his ministry while in prison and guided five inmates to Christ.

Throughout all this, he strongly believed that God would one day give him another Bible. “Whenever I have money I try to buy a Bible, but there are no Bibles to buy,” he said. “But after 25 years without

Thousands of precious Bibles stacked on pallets ready to begin the journey to south-east Asia

Bibles for south-east Asia

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Bibles strengthen people’s faith and light fires of Christian revival across world Bibles given by Barnabas Aid to Christians around the world last year have ignited the fire of revival in churches, strengthened people’s trust in the Lord and helped refugees overcome the mental traumas of civil war.

In Uganda, we delivered 2,100 Bibles to a relief camp for refugees fleeing the civil war in South Sudan. Pastors said the Scriptures helped these traumatized men, women, and children to become “free of anger and hatred.”

They said, “People are getting the heart to forgive and develop a spirit of oneness regardless of belonging” and added that this “would make an excellent beginning for contributing peace.”

The Bibles are loaded on to trucks ready to answer the prayers of Christians crying out for Scriptures

a Bible, God has given me a free Bible. When I received the Bible, I cried out to the Lord and praised God without ceasing.”

He added his thanks to Barnabas Aid supporters, “You have sown the best seed to the best ground. So these seeds will multiply more than millions of times.”

“Rachel” remembers she was “thirsty” to read the Word of God when she became a follower of the Lord Jesus more than 35 years ago at the age of 19, “but I could not find one Bible even to buy.” She was arrested once for sharing the Gospel in a border region and spent 13 days fearing for her life, until she escaped from prison. Since 2000, Rachel has joined with other Christians in the region in praying for Bibles.

“Every church has been praying this prayer,” she said. “Now after 17 years of praying, God has answered our people’s prayers through all of you.”

In 2018 Barnabas Aid provided 100,864 Bibles, New Testaments and Scripture portions in seven languages in six countries Christians who escaped terrible persecution by the authorities in Eritrea, and are now living in Israel, were overjoyed to receive 5,000 Bibles in Tigrinya, the national language of Eritrea. Church leaders said this has allowed them to pray more effectively, and strengthen their faith.

The 800 Bibles delivered to Guinea have “ignited the fire of revival” in churches.

Most were presented to new believers but some were also given to pastors preaching from Bibles so old that they had lost pages, or even whole books.

Local pastors said the Bibles will help the new believers to become “more committed and rooted in Christ” and “this will definitely lead to the advancement and strengthening of the church locally and nationally.”

Christian Literature Fund(project reference 00-360) Bibles and Scriptures Fund(project reference 00-362)

In Brief

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God’s intervention saves 72 captive Nigerian Christians from Boko Haram firing squad

Twenty killed in Philippines in bomb attack on cathedral PHILIPPINES

The lives of 72 Nigerian Muslimbackground Christians held captive by Boko Haram militants were saved by God’s intervention.

Seventy-six men, women and children were taken to the terrorists’ camp where they were tortured. The four male leaders of the group were told at gunpoint to renounce their faith in Christ and revert to Islam. When they refused, holding fast to their Savior, they were shot.

The following week, the wives of the four martyred men were also ordered to renounce their faith or their children would be executed.

As the mothers struggled under this terrible burden, the children revealed that the Lord Jesus had appeared to them and told them “all would be well.” According to the account, the Lord Jesus then appeared to all of the group and told them not to fear, that He would protect them. They should not renounce Him, but stay strong knowing that “He is the way, the truth and the life.”

The next morning the children were lined up against a wall by the terrorists and their four mothers refused to renounce Jesus Christ. The soldiers taking aim started to grab at their own heads, screaming “Snakes!” Some ran away and others dropped dead.

The youngest of the Christian children was heard to say, “Can’t you see the men in white fighting for us?”

All 72 lives were spared and members of the group are now living in safety.

(Further details on page 3.)

UZBEKISTAN

An Uzbek mother, who had recently left Islam to follow Christ, was killed by her husband on February 9. “Umida” was attempting to flee the country when her husband confronted her at Tashkent Airport, forced her into a car and slit her throat.

Previously, the man had locked Umida in their home to prevent her from going to church and banned her from seeing their two-year-old son. Uzbekistan, a former Soviet Union republic, is officially secular but an estimated 93% of the population is Muslim.

NIGERIA

As the mothers struggled under this terrible burden, the children revealed that the Lord Jesus had appeared to them and told them “all would be well.” According to the account, the Lord Jesus then appeared to all of the group and told them not to fear, that He would protect them.

Uzbek Christian killed by husband because of her faith

Nearly 300 Nigerian Christians slain by Fulani militants Scene of destruction outside the cathedral in Jolo, Philippines where two IS-linked terrorist bombs exploded during a morning service Image source: Tasnim New Agency (CC BY 4.0) Officials in the Philippines suspect militants linked to the Islamic State (IS) were responsible for the bombing of a cathedral in the south of the country that killed 20 people and injured at least 100 on January 27.

The attack on the island of Jolo, the capital of Sulu province, came six days after Sulu voters rejected its inclusion in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of the southern Philippines, which voters in the larger region approved.

The creation of the Autonomous Region and the introduction of Bangsamoro Basic Law, including elements of sharia (Islamic law), is an attempt by the government to find a political solution to end decades of fighting between Muslim jihadist groups in the south, where Islam is strong, and the army of the majorityChristian country. It will permit further Islamization of the region, bringing concerns over how this will negatively impact non-Muslims living there.

NIGERIA

Burned-out houses in Karamai village Barnabas Aid contacts report that nearly 300 people were killed in at least seven predominantly Christian villages across Kaduna State, Nigeria, in February and March.

On February 14, 41 died when gunmen engulfed Karamai village. Most of the dead were women and children, or the elderly and blind unable to flee. Up to 71 people were killed in a Fulani militia attack on March 11 in Dogon Noma village.

A further nine reportedly died in Nandu Gbok on March 16. In Kajuru district in February and March, the bodies of about 73 women, some pregnant, and 101 children including babies, were interred in a “mass burial.”

In the last two years, Fulani militants have murdered more than 6,000 in Nigeria, according to church estimates.

In Brief

Barnabas Aid May/June 2019 17

Pakistan’s Supreme Court summarily dismisses petition against acquittal of Aasia Bibi PAKISTAN

The Supreme Court of Pakistan dismissed on January 29 a petition seeking to review its decision to acquit Aasia Bibi, the Christian woman who spent almost eight years on death row falsely accused of “blasphemy.”

The judges stated that the petitioner

could not find any flaw in the court’s original verdict of October 31, 2018.

The Supreme Court had originally dismissed the accusations against Aasia as a “concoction” and described her accusers as untrustworthy.

Pakistani Christian mother forced to convert to Islam by kidnapper

PAKISTAN

Pakistani Christian mother, Saima Iqbal, was reunited with her husband after a harrowing kidnapping ordeal Image source: International Minorities Concern (Facebook video)

Asif Saeed Khosa, the Chief Justice of Pakistan, presided over the Supreme Court ruling upholding Aasia Bibi’s acquittal

Persecution intensifies in China against Early Rain Church CHINA

A further 44 arrests of Early Rain Covenant Church members were made, and a Chinese Christian journalist was arrested after writing about how the elderly mother of detained Pastor Wang Yi was savagely beaten by a police officer.

Journalist and church deacon Zhang Guoqing was arrested for “provoking trouble,” according to a statement issued by the church in Chengdu, Sichuan province, on March 2. He published a story of how the pastor’s mother, Chen

Yaxue, was beaten up by a policeman on February 24 after she refused to reveal her PIN number to him at an ATM. The 44 arrests made on February 24 included ten children and a twomonth-old baby. “This is only the tip of the iceberg,” said the statement.

Three hundred church members have been arrested or detained since the current wave of persecution against Early Rain began in December 2018.

Pastor Wang Yi and his wife, Jiang Rong, have been in jail since December 9 on charges of “inciting subversion.”

Barnabas Aid has launched a global initiative to pray for Pastor Wang Yi and others imprisoned for their Christian faith. Visit our webpage:

www.barnabasaid.org/Christian-Prisoners-of-Conscience

A Pakistani Christian mother of three was abducted, tortured and forced to convert to Islam by a Muslim man who then forced her to marry him, according to local news sources.

Saima Iqbal, who was already married to a Christian man, tearfully described in a Facebook video how she was snatched from her home on February 25.

Saima’s husband, Naveed Iqbal, reported the kidnapping to police but they initially refused to investigate and sided with the kidnapper. Mr. Iqbal said the police only acted after he threatened to set himself on fire.

Mrs. Iqbal was reunited with her husband and children, aged 4, 8 and 13, after her kidnapper was arrested on March 5.

“I have challenged the forced conversion and the forced marriage of my wife in a magistrate’s court,” said Mr. Iqbal, who is awaiting the court’s judgment.

Non-Muslim girls and women in Pakistan are very vulnerable to kidnap, forced conversion and marriage to Muslims, and authorities rarely intervene. Each year an estimated 700 Christian and an estimated 300 Hindu girls and young women in Pakistan suffer this kind of abuse, according to a Pakistani NGO report in 2014.

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18 May/June 2019 Barnab as Aid

In Touch

Donations flow in for Cameroon water project as students give up their favorite sodas About 150 primary and nursery school students who were thirsting to help Barnabas Aid’s work in Cameroon came up with a creative way of raising money by drinking only water, or milk, for an entire week.

It was a tough assignment for both students and teachers at the school in Northern Ireland because it meant giving up their favorite sodas, as well as tea and coffee.

They rose to the challenge magnificently and raised an amazing $2,605, enough to construct a water cistern in north-west Cameroon. This will supply clean, safe water to persecuted Christian villagers who would otherwise have to walk for many miles to find supplies.

Christians in the region face frequent attacks from Boko Haram militants, who loot cattle and other food stores, burn houses and churches and kill or kidnap inhabitants.

According to the UN, the terrorists have forced more than 170,000 Cameroonians, mainly Christians, to flee.

For example, on January 24, 2019 alone, 190 homes were destroyed in the predominantly Christian villages of Gochi and Toufou. Four churches were also ransacked, a Christian hospital was set on fire and livestock and essential household items looted.

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id Speakers, lo cated across th about the per e US, are pas secuted Churc sionate h and enthusi God is doing astic to share through all as what p ec ts speakers can of our work. O provide someo ur team of n e group, or at a to talk to you r church, smal special event about the con l persecutions texts, challen Christians face ges and in many coun world. If you tries across th would like to e book in touch with us, giving as m a Barnabas Speaker, please uch notice as get possible.

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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.

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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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NOW AVAILABLE

$15.00 (+ P&P)

Hated Without a Reason The remarkable story of Christian persecution over the centuries “If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also,” said the Lord Jesus Christ to His first followers. Christian believers have suffered for their Lord down the centuries and across the world. Hated Without a Reason tells the glorious story of their courage, faith and endurance, including many moving and inspirational examples that are little known. At a very personal level, Dr. Sookhdeo’s book considers the different ways in which individual Christians could respond to persecution. It also explores the wide sweep of causes of persecution over two thousand years, whether religious, political, economic or ideological, finding lessons from the past which are relevant and applicable in the twenty-first century.

ISBN: 978-1-7321952-4-0 Cover: Paperback RRP: $25.00 Package & Postage: $3.99

To order these books, please contact your nearest Barnabas Aid office (addresses on inside front cover). usa@barnabasaid.org

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