Open Doors: Field Report Webinar

So I just got off a webinar which was by Open Doors, an organization dedicated to keeping a watch on our Persecuted Brethren everywhere. This webinar was to be a field report on what was happening with our brethren in Christ located in the Middle East, Central Asia, Iran and Iraq. At first, the reporter (his name is William), told the audience about his story about working in areas like the Middle East where persecution is high. He also went to what life is like for our brethren in Christ living those areas as of today. He mentioned government-funded churches where they are forbidden from evangelizing people of other faiths (and if they do evangelize they do it very secretly by sending someone who is seeking to a side-door of sorts). He also mentioned underground churches where people are more open to doing evangelism (albeit cautiously), but are forbidden by the government. Then lastly, there were many questions that were answered by William and the CEO David.

I took many things from this webinar:
1. God’s Providence- William mentioned how God told him to leave Iraq after living there for 16 years and then when He wanted him to return, the doors were open and he was provided with what he needed (and at times, what he wanted). When God wants you somewhere He will open the doors for you.

2. God’s Will- Something the field reporter said was that there is no safer place to be than the will of God. This is pretty much a no-brainer. When one is doing the will of God, a hedge of protection usually (but not always) follows and many people have been protected while witnessing to others at the risk of their lives. And if one gets killed, no bother, they’ll be with the Savior forever.

3. The benefits of persecution-
    A. The field reporter mentioned that some people have been blessed by having to flee as a result of persecution. He mentioned on girl who was a nominal Christian with life that consisted of coming to church, now after having to flee due to her faith in Christ, she now lives a Christian life 24/7. Persecution can cause people to become more devoted to following the living Savior beforehand.
    B.  The field reporter also mentioned how virtually everyone facing heavy persecution has lots of PTSD. As a result they have to lean on and help each other deal with the PTSD. Persecution can drive  people to help each other and draw each other close. It also can cause people to love each other more deeply.


In the end, the field reporter said that what our persecuted brethren in Christ need more than anything else was to experience God. It would help them get through th daily hell they endure. I pray that this happens for them.

This was an amazing Webinar. I learned much and got some more tips on how to help my persecuted brethren in Christ.

Praise Report

As all of you know, in late June 2015, gay marriage was scene as morally legitimate in America. A lot of fear grew in me because I felt that with this would come the loss of religious freedom and free speech. I feared that many more of my brethren in Christ who were photographers and makers of marriage cakes would lose their jobs for refusing to do things for gay couples.

And then a ray of hope came in the form of this article:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. But the 7-to-2 decision was on the narrowest of grounds and left unresolved whether business owners have a free speech right to refuse to sell goods and services to same-sex couples.

The case began when a same-sex couple in Colorado — Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins — filed a complaint with the state civil-rights commission after baker Jack Phillips told them that he did not design custom cakes for gay couples. Colorado, like most states, has a state anti-discrimination law for businesses that are open to the public. Twenty-one states, including Colorado, have laws that bar discrimination based on sexual orientation, in addition to barring discrimination based on race, religion and gender.

Acting on the complaint filed by Craig and Mullins, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled in favor of the couple, as did the state Supreme Court. Phillips appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. As he put it last December, "It is hard for me to believe the government is forcing me to choose between providing for my family ... and violating my relationship with God(Continue reading)."

This gives me hope. It shows that this country and the people in it still have some moral sanity and that I can hold on to my freedoms much more longer. It shows that the leaders of this country still have a conscience. My prayer is that Yahweh will continue to guide these leaders and help them make decisions that will protect everyone’s religious liberties.

Christian Man in Pakistan Beaten to Death by Police Seeking Extortion Money

06/11/2018 Pakistan (Morning Star News) – Poor Christians in Pakistan commonly see police target them for extortion on false charges, and last week such a case ended in the death of a 24-year-old Christian, relatives said.

On the assumption that Christians with few legal resources can be targeted with impunity in the 96-percent Muslim country, policemen on May 29 killed Waqas Masih when his uncle refused their demand for money after they threatened to file false charges, the relatives said. Police are now pressuring the family to drop the murder case, they said.

The slain young man’s mother, a widow who belongs to a Pentecostal church, told Morning Star News that three policemen forced their way into the home of her brother, rickshaw driver Saleem Masih, in in Punjab Province’s Haider Colony, Gujrat District. Saleem Masih had recruited Waqas Masih and other relatives to help him with a construction project at his residence.

“Around 6 p.m., I was informed that three policemen had beaten my son to death,” Khalida Bibi, a sweeper at a hospital, told Morning Star News. “The police are now mounting pressure on us to ‘reconcile’ with their accused colleagues. They were initially reluctant to even arrest the accused, but eventually they had to take them into custody when we threatened to launch protests.”

Saleem Masih’s son, Emmanuel Saleem, told Morning Star News that he and other relatives were sitting in the courtyard of their home when three officers identified only as Shoaib, Shehbaz and Saqib forced their way in around 5:15 p.m.

“We asked them what they wanted, to which they said that they had information that we are drug peddlers and that they had raided the house to recover the narcotics,” he said, adding that the allegation was frivolous as the three policemen were notorious for blackmailing poor people in the area.

“We are poor Christians, but we earn our livelihood with honesty and integrity,” Emmanuel Saleem said. “We knew that the policemen were there for extorting money, but since we had done nothing wrong, my father chose to confront them rather than succumb to their blackmail.”

A heated argument ensued between his father and the police, and they began threatening to file false charges against him and other family members, he said.

“This must have panicked Waqas, who ran outside the house,” Emmanuel Saleem said. “The three cops ran after him, as did my other cousins, Qaiser and Dawood. The cops got hold of Waqas soon after and started hitting him mercilessly with punches, kicks and gun butts. Qaiser and Dawood tried to save Waqas from the police torture, but they were pushed back and warned not to intervene in the beating.”

His two cousins had returned to the house to tell his father what had happened when the policemen arrived and told them to check on Waqas Masih, saying he was “feigning illness,” Emmanuel Saleem said.

“We immediately rushed toward Waqas and saw him lying on the street, motionless,” he said, adding that he had already died by the time they arrived (Go To Here).

Christian Family from Pakistan Begs British Prime Minister for Asylum

Dear Prime Minister, please grant this family their request.

06/12/2018 Pakistan (BBC) – A Christian man who has spent six years seeking asylum has appealed to the prime minister to allow him and his family to stay in the UK.

Maqsood Bakhsh fled Pakistan in 2012 with his wife and two sons after Islamic extremists threatened to kill him because of his religious beliefs.

They now live in Glasgow and fear their lives would be in danger if they returned to Pakistan.

The Home Office said every asylum case was assessed on its individual merits.

It said officials would contact the Bakhsh family to discuss their circumstances after their case was highlighted by the Church of Scotland.

The catalyst for Mr Bakhsh leaving Pakistan with his wife Parveen, their sons Somer and Areebs – then aged nine and seven – was the murder of two Christians shot outside a court in Faisalabad in 2010.

Pastor Rashid Emmanuel, 32, and Sajid, 24, were accused of writing a pamphlet critical of the Prophet Muhammad that flouted Pakistan’s controversial blasphemy law, which carries the death penalty.

Mr Bakhsh, 50, claims the people responsible for the deaths believed he was in league with the two men and would kill him and his family if they had the chance.

The Home Office has rejected the family’s previous asylum applications and they have now been told they have exhausted the process and have no right to appeal.

However, they plan to launch a legal challenge (Go To Here).

Fire Erupts in Egyptian Church

More demonstrations of my Egyptian brethren in Christ being horribly persecuted during Ramadan:

06/13/2018 Egypt (Fides) – The flames of an accidental fire burst in a church in the middle of the night which led to the imam of the nearby mosque to use the speakers of the Muslim place of worship to sound the alarm and call everyone to intervene to extinguish the flames. This is what happened in Shubra al Khaymah, in the northern area of the great urban area of Cairo, during the night between 10 and 11 June.

Around midnight, the flames reached the wooden scaffolding put up for the works of reconstruction around the Orthodox Coptic church of Anba Makar. The alarm in the neighborhood was launched by Sheikh El Jamea, imam of the nearby mosque, who called the population to intervene to try and extinguish the fire. Among the first to rush and to try to contain the damage caused by the flames were many young Muslims who were eating together.

Anba Morcos, Coptic Orthodox Bishop of Shubra al Khaymah, publicly thanked the imam for the promptness of his intervention, presented now by Egyptian media as a concrete example of the spontaneous attitude of the Egyptian people to build social relations of peaceful and supportive coexistence(Go here).

Coptic Christians Forced to Observe Ramadan

With a religion like Islam which coerces people into the faith, I’m not shocked my Egyptian brethren in Christ are being forced to observe a holiday they don’t celebrate:

06/14/2018 Egypt (World Watch Monitor) – In one of three incidents reported to World Watch Monitor, an Egyptian photographer was detained by police for carrying a bottle of water during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when Muslims are required not to eat or drink anything from the first light of dawn until sunset. He claims he was targeted because of his Christian faith.

Hani Shamshoun Girgis, 31, arrived at Giza railway station on 5 June to continue his way to the office of the Tahrir newspaper where he works, when he was approached by a police officer and asked to present his ID.

Girgis told World Watch Monitor that as soon as the officer found out through his ID that he was a Christian, he started searching his bag.

“There was a bottle of water inside my bag and, while he was searching it, he was staring at this bottle with anger,” Girgis said. “He took my ID from me and asked me to follow him. When I resisted and asked where he was taking me, he started insulting me and ordered that I stopped talking — as if I was a criminal.”

At the police station, Girgis says he was told that he was arrested because of the bottle of water found in his bag.

“The officer told me, ‘Why did you have this bottle of water while we are in Ramadan?'” he recalled. “I told them I was not fasting because I was a Christian, but they insulted me and said that I would stay there until sunset and that I was not allowed to sit.”

Girgis says he then called his editor-in-chief at Tahrir newspaper, who came to the police station and saw that he was released.

“I was held at the police station for more than two hours and was dealt with in a very humiliating way for having done nothing,” Girgis said.

“When I am at work, I don’t eat or drink in front of my Muslim colleagues, as a sign of respect,” he added.

Ramy Emad, a Christian lawyer from Cairo, the Egyptian capital, told World Watch Monitor that it is illegal to arrest someone — whether Christian or Muslim — for failing to adhere to the Ramadan fast.

“What the police officer did to Hani is a crime and he must be prosecuted and fired from his position,” the lawyer said.

World Watch Monitor asked the police department of Giza railway station — where Hani was detained — for comment, but they hung up (Go Here).

My Egyptian brethren in Christ will be in my prayers as this holiday comes to a close.

Kidnapping of Coptic Christians on the Rise

I feel horrible for not posting ANYTHING about my brethren in Christ being persecuted in Muslim-majority countries during Ramadan. In Egypt, our brethren in Christ are being kidnapped and it is only increasing:

06/14/2018 Egypt (Mission Network News) –  There has been a spike in kidnappings and disappearances of Christian women and girls in rural areas of Egypt and some cities.

“What seems to be happening is that a trafficking strategy that targets Coptic Christian young ladies and forces them to convert to Islam then sell them into either into domestic care in other international locations or into the sex trade,” Open Doors’ David Curry says.

Curry shares these kidnappings are being used as a tactic to demoralize the women and to humiliate the Christian community.

According to World Watch Monitor, there were seven kidnappings of Coptic Christian women in the month of April and an eighth one on May 2. The families of these women suspect they have been kidnapped by Muslims.

One of the girls who was kidnapped, Mirna Malak Shenouda, a 16-year-old Coptic Christian girl, escaped her kidnappers.

World Watch Monitor reported she was kidnapped by two women and a man in Aswan. She had been knocked out but awoke on a train. At one of the stops, she jumped off and called her parents.

However, Shenouda’s escape and rescue are rare.

Many families of the missing girls have turned to police after disappearances, but have received minimal to no help due to religious prejudices(Continue reading).

Thankful that one of the women escaped abduction from their kidnappers. I pray that more of my brethren in Christ escape them and the abductors surrender their lives to Christ as well.

Ramadan: Persecution against our Brethren in Christ rises

This is the first time I have posted for my blog this year. I hope to continue to do so even after this period has ended.

Ramadan has begun today. For those who don't know, Ramadan is the ninth month in the lunar calendar during which Muslims fast throughout the day, eating and drinking nothing for a day (as well as abstaining from sexual intercourse if they are married).

Seems innocuous, right? Wrong. Aside from causing Muslims to steep into gluttony, it seems that when Muslims fast during this month focus more on their faith, it causes them to get more violent and target non-Muslims.

It is our brethren in Christ who feel the brunt of this violence.

The website known as The Religion of Peace calls this the Ramadan Bombathon.

Here is a video by a brother in Christ known as David Wood about the Ramadan Bombathon. I know it is a year or so old, but the message is still relevant even in 2018.

Stay tuned as I will be post article of our brethren in Christ being persecuted more than usual in Muslim lands during this period in which Muslims fast (I will also post articles our Brethren in Christ being persecuted by other sorts of people and in non-Muslim lands, but not as much). We need to pray that the Lord keeps our brethren in Christ safe and that Muslims will come to know Christ as Savior during this time.