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AUGUST 2015
PERSECU ION
Mexico:
Persecution
Exposed
An ICC/CSW investigation reveals the shocking story of persecution in Mexico
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INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN CONCERN
Your Dollar$ at Work Celebrating the Graduation of 30 Christian Women from Vocational Training
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Save Our Sisters
n Pakistan, Christian women are forced to face a form of double persecution. By many, they are considered extra vulnerable for two reasons. First, they are regarded as the weaker gender. Second, they are regarded as the wrong religion. Because of this, Christian women are targeted by Muslim men for abduction, rape and forced conversions to Islam that are often followed by forced marriages to their abductors. It has been estimated that 700 Christian women are forcefully converted and forcefully married every year in Pakistan. Christian women are most vulnerable to this growing issue while working as domestic workers in Muslim homes, as field workers on farms or as laborers at brick kilns. In response, ICC established several Save Our Sisters vocational training centers in Pakistan in 2012. These centers have helped Christian women learn a skilled profession that enables them to establish a small business of their own that they can run out of the safety of their own home. On June 19, 30 Christian women graduated from two of ICC’s Save Our Sisters vocational training centers. These women completed the 10-month training program learning how to become expert seamstresses and businesswomen. During the graduation, the women received both a certificate indicating they had successfully completed the training program and, more importantly, the items they will need to start their very own small business. Thank you to all those who donate to ICC’s Save Our Sisters fund. With your donations, we are truly helping change the lives of many Christian women in Pakistan by allowing them to become the masters of their own destiny.
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AUGUST 2015
Church Growth Food and Relief to Niger Pastors in Indonesia
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Through the Eye of a Needle
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Underground Pastors
CC supports five church planters in Indonesia who share the Gospel with Muslims among unreached people groups. In the past five years, hundreds of Muslims have come to faith in Christ. Church planter Nehemia thanked ICC for our support and told us the testimonies of new believers’ changed lives and healed marriages are throwing the doors of evangelism wide open in Indonesia!
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Community Rebuild
ore than six months after extremist Muslims rioted across Niger in response to the cartoon publication of the Muslim prophet Mohammed in the French satirical magazine, Charlie Hebdo, Christians are still suffering. ICC has stepped in to provide relief food packages to five pastors in desperate need and is replacing chairs at their churches lost in the blazes.
Underground Pastors
avid was from a wealthy family in Iran. At 30 years old, he was successful, but began to realize the problem of sin in his life. “I was looking to run away from it. I started saying prayers and going to the mosque, but still I thought there was no way of getting out,” Navid said. While he was in the midst of this struggle, a customer visited his store and started talking about God. This new friend told Navid how the power of sin could be broken. He shared with him the Scriptures that explain who God is and how to have a relationship with Him. The customer Navid met was one of the church leaders ICC supports through our Underground Pastors fund. In some of the world’s most challenging places, your gifts help us support those faithfully sharing Jesus. “Now I am reading the Scriptures. I believed in Jesus Christ and I understood that he died to forgive my sins,” Navid said.
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Aiding Imprisoned Pastors’ Families
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Suffering Wives & Children
uring the night of July 21, 2014, Chinese government authorities physically attacked and injured more than 20 Christians while dismantling the cross of the Christian Gospel Church in Shuitou, China. In response to those events, Pastor Huang Yizi (above) encouraged his church members to inquire about the altercation with local authorities. Unfortunately, police interpreted Huang’s
actions as leading a disturbance, and he was officially arrested on August 28, 2014. On March 24, 2015, he was convicted and sentenced to one year in prison. Pastor Huang remains incarcerated but continues to share the Gospel, now with other prisoners. The assistance ICC provides to his family, as well as to nine other families of prisoners of conscience, reminds Christians in China that they have not been forgotten.
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Your Dollar$ at Work
Rebuilding Homes for Widows and Families in Aftermath of Muslim Attack Community Rebuild
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CC is rebuilding hope for a village in Kenya that was burned down by Muslim extremist terrorists al-Shabaab. Even before Garissa, the Somali group was persecuting Christians all along the Kenyan coast, including burning the village of Hindi and murdering all of the men on July 5, 2014. Edna’s husband, Joseph, was dragged out of the house that night and slaughtered before her eyes while their house burned. While it will never replace the husband she lost in the attack, Edna has a new home. ICC’s partners in Kenya built the wooden frame first and then slid a metal roof on top. Next, they tirelessly mixed dirt and water to craft mud bricks to insulate the house. Edna is one of four widows, and her family is just one of 15 families who ICC helped with new homes after the attack. Please continue to pray for this community as they work to rebuild their lives and remain steadfast in their faith.
Microbusiness Grants Helping Iraqis Rebuild Hand of Hope
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SIS has driven more than 3 million people from their homes. The heartland of Iraq’s Christian community has been completely devastated. More than 150,000 Christians are now living in unfinished buildings, makeshift temporary shelters, or crammed together with 15 or 20 people sharing a single apartment. Not only are the homes overcrowded, but entire cities are struggling to cope with the
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flood of new people. Jobs are scarce, education is almost nonexistent and basic supplies are nearly impossible to obtain. Desperate just to survive, countless families in Iraq’s Christian community are streaming out of the country. ICC is continuing to provide these families with basic needs like food, water and air coolers to survive the brutal heat, but more needs to be done. To stop the exodus and to give an opportunity for new life, ICC and its partners in Iraq are helping some of these families start over. A small grant to start a business was all the incentive and opportunity Sikot needed. She used the grant to purchase a sewing machine and the other tools needed to start a dressmaking shop. Together with her nieces, Sikot is producing multiple dresses a day and selling them throughout the city that has become their AUGUST 2015
Your Dollar$ at Work
Food Aid to Vulnerable Families
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Hand of Hope
n March 15, suicide bombers connected to the Pakistani Taliban attacked Christ Church and St. John’s Catholic Church in a predominantly Christian area of Lahore, Pakistan. As a result, 19 people were killed and another 86 were wounded. In an effort to bring relief to these perse-
new home. These women are not only creating dresses from scratch and a business from scratch, but they are starting new lives from scratch. We at ICC have been able to repeat the story with Abeer, whose corner shop is helping enable her to pay fees for her kids to attend school. For two teenage sisters, an oven and baking supplies have turned into a subscription bakery providing flat bread for many of their new neighbors. A grant to start earning an income and start building a business has provided purpose and opportunity to continue life in Iraq. They are all displaced from another part of Iraq because of war and violence. Like so many others, the life they lived before has been destroyed, but with your help they are able to build something new.
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cuted Christians, ICC distributed food aid to 26 of the most vulnerable families in need. After the distribution, one beneficiary said, “I am now a widow and have eight children. I am really very grateful to ICC, who gave us this food aid. With this aid, I will be able to give food to my children. God bless ICC. I can now say that our Lord Jesus never leaves his believers in their sufferings.”
Vocational Training in Egypt Helping Women Find Discipleship
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Save Our Sisters
gypt has gone through wave after wave of political turmoil over the past five years as Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood have fought for control of the country. Behind the political battle, a spiritual battle is taking place as many Muslims are leaving Islam to put their faith in Jesus. Through ICC’s Save Our Sisters fund, dozens of Christian women from Muslim backgrounds received skills both spiritual
and physical for this new life. Many of these women are still living in homes with a husband or father who is a Muslim and would prevent them from spending time with Christians. Vocational courses in sewing, crochet, hairdressing and literacy provide the opportunity for discipleship to help them grow in their new faith. They also teach a new skill and give them an opportunity for a business to earn an income with their own two hands.
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You Can Help Today!
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SEND DONATIONS TO: ICC PO BOX 8056 SILVER SPRING, MD 20907 OR ONLINE AT WWW.PERSECUTION.ORG OR BY PHONE 800-ICC-5441
GIVING TO ICC VIA YOUR WILL Provide now for a future gift to ICC by including a bequest provision in your will or revocable trust. If you would like more information on giving to ICC in this way, please give us a call at 1-800-ICC-5441.
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International Christian Concern (ICC) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) (all donations tax-deductible). ICC makes every effort to honor donor wishes in regards to gifts. Occasionally, situations arise where a project is no longer viable. ICC will then redirect those donated funds to the fund most similar to the donor’s original wishes. ICC uses 7.5 percent of each restricted donation to carry out the mission of its segregated funds. facebook.com/persecuted
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