PERSECUTION International Christian Concern | January 2013
IN THIS ISSUE:
Issue 3/4
ON THE GROUND IN SOUTHEAST ASIA Regional Manager Ryan Morgan details his trip to Southeast Asia. page 3
YOUR DOLLARS AT WORK:
For Christians in Laos, life under Communism has been easy. Read how your donations have provided their needs and greatly strengthened their faith. page 7
Children rescued from Islamic training centers pose with Special Blessings gifts from ICC donors.
Your Bridge to the Persecuted Church
A NOTE FROM THE PRESIDENT Iron, till it be thoroughly heated is incapable of being wrought; so God sees good to cast some men into the furnace of affliction, and then beats them on His anvil into what frame He pleases. Anne Bradstreet (puritan Christian)
In the fire is where Daniel met the living God. The only thing he lost was what bound him—his ropes. Last July, Adija* was incredibly excited about the life she had found in Christ only a few months earlier. After living under a lie for her whole life, she had found Christ. He was living inside her and she had changed so much. Unfortunately, her husband was a fundamentalist Somali Muslim and began to suspect something was amiss. He began to monitor her movements and soon discovered the truth: his Muslim wife had become a Christian. For a fundamentalist Muslim, this is not acceptable. Muhammad declared that apostates should be killed, so her husband planned to kill her and escape their home in Kenya for Somalia, where he would not be prosecuted. On July 2, he doused her with kerosone, set her ablaze, and then left for Somalia. She stumbled around, screaming in flames before collapsing. The next thing she knew, she woke up in a hospital in horrible pain. As you will see (page 15), she is horribly disfigured. Because of our network on the ground, and our incredible Regional Managers, Adija came to our attention. We are now trying to repair the damage that Satan and her husband dealt to her. We are working with doctors trying to reduce her scarring and relieve her pain to the best of the doctors’ ability. *name changed for security
Jeff King, President International Christian Concern
Adija’s external appearance and physcial life will never be the same. Yet, because of your devotion to the persecuted, her life is going to be dramatically improved. Persecuted Christians never stop telling us how amazed they are that Christians from the other side of the world care about their pain and suffering, and will sacrifice to make their lives better. On Adija’s behalf, I’d like to thank you for providing the funds to heal her, and for building and bandaging Christ’s persecuted Church. This work we do in partnership is a holy work, and wholly worthy of your touch, time, and treasure. As you provide funds for ministry to the persecuted, please know that ICC will use your gifts ethically, efficiently, and effectively.
SOUTHEAST ASIA
ON THE GROUND IN
southeast asia BY REGIONAL MANAGER RYAN MORGAN
As Regional Manager for Southeast Asia, Ryan Morgan is no stranger to the plight of believers in this heavily persecuted region. However prepared, it is difficult to remain calm when faced with a bombed-out car, and the knowledge that the believers you are interviewing are risking their lives to meet with you. I just can’t believe the expression on their faces. The couple standing in front of me is smiling calmly, shaking my hand, telling their story as if we were simply making small talk. Yet the air around me is filled with a tension so palpable I can feel my heart starting to race. And why wouldn’t it be? Just a few feet in front of me lies the still fresh evidence of an attempted multiple homicide and I’m told the perpetrators, who are still at large, are probably not far away. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
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To tell the whole story, I have to start from the beginning, a little less than two weeks before my journey to visit persecuted Christians in Southeast Asia began. In my time as ICC’s Regional Manager for Southeast Asia I have found that nothing can really replace the crucial visits we make to our regions. Meeting with victims, documenting their stories, and helping the persecuted church are absolutely critical in ICC’s neverending effort to make the Western Church and the rest of the world aware of the immense challenges faced by persecuted Christians today, as well provide advocacy and assistance to them.
Radical Islamists detonate a bomb in the driveway of a Christian couple’s house in the city of Poso, Indonesia. It was in this city, a decade ago, that 10,000 Christians were slaughtered.
A local pastor confirmed what I already suspected, namely that I could expect all of my e-mails to be read, my phone My journey began in Vietnam. Looking out of the taxi’s conversations to be tapped, and the secret police to be moniwindow at the masses of motorbikes, the groups of tourists toring my movements. The government doesn’t like foreignsnapping photos, and the occasional ers meeting with dissidents, a term luxury hotel, one would never guess which of course includes many JUST A FEW FEET IN FRONT OF ME they had arrived in one of the last five Christians bold enough to simply Communist nations on earth. Thanks LIES THE STILL FRESH EVIDENCE OF share their faith with others. to market reforms and greater eco- AN ATTEMPTED HOMICIDE AND I’M nomic freedom, Vietnam’s economy TOLD THE PERPETRATORS, WHO MR. PHAN has been booming. Sadly, these reARE STILL AT LARGE, ARE One man, we’ll call him Mr. Phan, forms have yet to translate into broad PROBABLY NOT FAR AWAY. related his powerful testimony religious freedom, as I quickly discovabout growing up in a wealthy, paered firsthand. triotic family. His parents had beOver the next two days I sat down with one Christian after longed to the Communist Party and his father was even a another who has experienced persecution in ways I could war veteran. Living in relative luxury, Mr. Phan said that he only imagine. They came from all over Vietnam to meet with “lived for himself” and started using drugs at just 14. Years ICC, though of course the meetings are conducted in secret. later, at 30, he was miraculously delivered from his addicVIETNAM
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SOUTHEAST ASIA
tion after accepting Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Mr. Phan’s deliverance from drugs led his entire family to accept Christ. Believing that without God’s help he would have died long ago, Mr. Phan committed the rest of his life to helping others recover from their addictions. For a time, Mr. Phan’s “esteemed” heritage protected him from too much scrutiny as he started a rehabilitation center. However, the ministry grew too successful too quickly. Hundreds were coming to Christ through their outreaches. Whole families accepted Jesus after seeing their loved ones delivered from drugs and alcohol. Soon the police started calling in workers at the center for questioning, including Mr. Phan’s elderly mother. Not satisfied with the answers, they cut off the power and water supply to the center and confiscated most of its property. When Mr. Phan continued his ministry anyway, the authorities hired a mob of about 100 thugs to storm the rehabilitation center’s compound. They destroyed everything.
MR. PHAN’S MINISTRY GREW TOO SUCCESSFUL TOO QUICKLY. THE POLICE CUT OFF THE POWER AND WATER SUPPLY TO THE CENTER AND CONFISCATED MOST OF ITS PROPERTY. WHEN HE CONTINUED HIS MINISTRY ANYWAY, THE AUTHORITIES HIRED A MOB TO STORM THE REHABILITATION CENTER. THEY DESTROYED EVERYTHING. This last incident took place not long before Mr. Phan and I met. As we spoke, he showed me a petition he was thinking of sending to the federal government. He was concerned though that if he sent it, he would be arrested. Considering that this is often the fate of anyone daring enough to publicly petition the government, I knew his fears were not unfounded. We prayed together, asking the Lord for wisdom, and with that, I bid Mr. Phan farewell. Over the next few days I interviewed a dozen more Vietnamese Christians, many with testimonies just as compelling as Mr. Phan’s. Only a few hours before my flight was scheduled to depart Vietnam, I found myself standing behind a pulpit at a small service in one of the country’s many illegal house churches. It seemed surreal that just a day before I was in the back of a cramped van, wearing a disguise, conducting an onthe-go interview with two women whose pastor husbands had been sent to prison for their faith. My visit had been brief, but intense. What could I possibly have said to encourage this group in the face of so much opposition? My
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Although the constitution of Vietnam allows religious freedom, government restrictions remain on organized activities of many religious groups, especially those perceived by the government as a challenge to its rule or authority.
A persecuted pastor in Indonesia says, “Thank You!”
own words seemed so insufficient, so instead, I simply read from Jeremiah 29:11: “‘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.’” (NLT) Looking back now, I realize that the only thing harder than recording the heartrending stories of these precious men and women of God, was perhaps getting back on the plane and leaving them. INDONESIA My next destination was Indonesia. This island nation is the world’s fourth largest country and home to more than 200 million Muslims. It is widely cited as an example of Islamic tolerance, democracy, and religious freedom. This reputation, however, I found to be ill-deserved. My first meetings were with pastors in the city of Bekasi, a region just outside the capital, Jakarta, where radical Islamists had been forcing churches out of their buildings and into the streets for years. One of these pastors, Rev. Palti Panjaitan, has had bricks, rotten eggs, and even bags of human urine thrown into his congregation as they tried to worship outside of their sealed off building (see “Pastor Palti Panjaitan: An Unlikely Hero” page 15). During the meetings I am asked over and over again if America will put pressure on the Indonesian government to stop this discrimination. I told them that I can’t make any promises, in terms of relief.
Wreckage from a car bomb planted in front of a Christian home in Poso, Indonesia.
Finally, I travel to the city of Poso, Sulawesi. It was in this city, Poso, that a little over 10 years ago, the eventual slaughter of approximately 10,000 of Indonesia’s Christians began. Tragically little is remembered today in the outside world of this massacre, so I’ve come to follow up on those horrific events and see how Christians there are doing today. It is here that I meet the Christian couple who at the beginning of this story so surprised me with their calmness. A few days before I met them, radical Islamists detonated a bomb in their driveway. As we speak, they pull back the tarp over their vehicle and I see up close how the bomb had twisted the car’s metal into unnatural shapes, shattered the windows, and blown out all of the tires. The husband and wife were home at the time and knocked off their feet by the blast, but thankfully they were left unharmed. I am told that this blast is not an isolated one, and that Christians in Poso are still living in constant fear of another mass attack by the radical Islamists, whose camps are within walking distance of the city. After this last visit, the reality of just how imminent the danger is for some Christians begins to sink in. Whether targeted by a Communist government that fears its authority is being threatened, or radical Islamists bent on spreading their theology through violence, Christians in Southeast Asia face very real threats to their lives. Yet they seem to have the courage it takes to face these threats; so my only question is, do we in the West have the courage to stand with them? You can help today! 800-ICC-5441
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YDAW YDAW
Leaders of the Christian community stand in front of the emergency delivery of rice and take a moment to thank ICC.
RICE IN LAOS Community Rebuilding For Christians in Laos, life under Communism has never been easy. From restrictions on importing Bibles to bans on building new churches, every Christian in Laos must live with their freedoms curtailed to some extent. Arrests for preaching the Gospel and rough treatment at the hands of police are not unheard of. But for some Christians living in more rural areas, conditions are even worse. Such was the case for a group of more than two dozen Christian families living in a small village in the central part of the country. On February 21, Communist officials arrived in their village to conduct a seminar on the “tricks of the enemy,� which of course included Christians. They concluded the seminar by ordering the confiscation of the Christian church in the village, which had been holding services for the community of believers for more than 30 years. The Christians were shocked and saddened by the loss of their building, but eventually found the courage to hold services again, even risking arrest by meeting outside of their padlocked church. Things, however, soon took another turn for the worse. In May, ICC was informed that these families were beginning to run out of food. Terrible flooding the previous year had wiped out their rice harvest and supplies were dwindling. Some families had already run out. Out of their dislike for the Christian families and in an attempt to pres7
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sure them to recant their faith, local authorities were making sure that any food brought in to help with the famine wasn’t getting to the Christian families. Help would have to come from elsewhere. By early June, the Christian families were facing starvation. Out of desperation, some had even started sending their children to sneak over the border in search of food. At this point ICC partnered with a regional organization in a mission to bring in some relief. Thanks to ICC donors, within weeks nearly 6,000 pounds of rice were purchased and delivered to the Christian families. It was just enough to keep the families, which comprised about 180 men, women, and children, well fed long enough for them to find new sources of food. Leaders of the Christian community in the village reported to ICC that not only were they able to fend off starvation with the timely delivery of rice, but that their faith had been greatly strengthened. As remote as their village may be, they realized that Christians all over the world had come to their aid and that they were not alone in their struggle against the local authorities. Today, these brave Christians still face pressure from their local government. They were recently instructed to tear down their church building. Our most recent report says they have yet to comply, and that thanks in large part to the support of the outside world, their faith remains unshaken.
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