Six Churches Torched in Tanzania

Six Churches Torched in Tanzania

 

By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)  

 

TANZANIA  (ANS. OCT. 1, 2015) -- Six churches have been burnt down in northwest Tanzania within eight days. According to a story by World Watch Monitor (WWM), the first three churches were torched, on Sept. 23, 2015. 

 

They were the Living Waters International Church, Buyekera Pentecostal Assemblies of God, and Evangelical Assemblies of God Tanzania, which are all located in the Bukoba region, on the shores of Lake Victoria.

 

Then, during the night of Sept. 26, three more churches - also in Bukoba - were torched. They were the Evangelical Lutheran Church, Kitundu Roman Catholic Church and Katoro Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church. All are located in the Katoro region of western Bukoba.  

 

“The people woke up on 27th September to find their sanctuaries burnt down,” an anonymous source told WWM. 

 

“The scenarios are the same. Unknown people broke in, piled things onto the altar, poured petrol over it and set it alight. They fled before anyone could respond, and so remain unknown.”

 

The first fire occurred at the Living Waters church. At around 4am local time, Pastor Vedasto Athanas was awakened by a phone call from a neighbor alerting him that his church was on fire. He rushed to the scene, but was too late to prevent the damage to hundreds of chairs, tables and benches, and the pulpit.

 

Shortly afterwards, WWM said, arsonists set fire to the Buyekera Pentecostal church, pastored by Rev. Emmanuel Narsis. 

 

About an hour later, the third church, in the nearby Kibeta neighbourhood, was torched. Its pastor,  Rev. Kabonaki, received a phone call just before 6am. He rushed to the church, but not in enough time to prevent flames from destroying the church and everything inside.

 

The secretary of the local pastors' organization, the Bukoba Pastors Fellowship, said there have been many arson attacks in the Kagera area since 2013.

 

“Since 2013 we have had over 13 churches torched here in Kagera, and no one has been held accountable. This is not acceptable,” said the secretary, who WWM said wished to be known only by her first name, Annette. 

 

In early 2013, the church of Rev. Innocent Mzinduki was torched. In July 2013, a pastor identified as Joyce lost her church. In Sept. 2013, the Maruku Pentecostal Assemblies of God Church was burned down. 

 

In early 2015, Lutheran churches in Rubale, Kyaka Mushasha and Kagondo Muleba were torched. In February, the Calvary Assemblies of God, Itawa Baptist Church, Redeemed Church, Kagondo and TMRC Kyabitembe were also burned down.  

 

“And these are not the only ones,” Annette told WWM. “They have now started adding fuel (paraffin or petrol)to ensure maximum damage.”   

 

According to the secretary, a few people were arrested after the February arson incidents but they were later released. No more investigative progress has been reported to date. 

 

“We are very upset and concerned, as this is a trend that can no longer be ignored,” she said. 

 

Annette added, “The police tell us they are investigating, but we have heard no progress from investigations of previous church arson attacks.”

 

For more information visit www.worldwatchmonitor.org

 

Photo captions: 1) A Tanzanian church being torched. 2) Jeremy and Elma Reynalds.

 

About the writer: Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, www.joyjunction.org. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com. 

 

Note: If you would like to help support the ASSIST News Service, please go to www.assistnews.net  and click on the DONATE button to make you tax-deductible gift (in the US), which will help us continue to bring you these important stories.  If you prefer to send a check, please make it out to ASSIST and mail it to PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA.

 

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‘I am going to be with you through this,’ God told pastor and Ironman victor

‘I am going to be with you through this,’ God told pastor and Ironman victor

By Steve Rees, Special to the ASSIST News Service

FERGUS FALLS, MINNESOTA (ANS – October 11, 2015) -- Finishing her first Half Ironman Triathlon in second-place behind a former Olympic athlete from South Africa, Pastor Mary Bangs focused on her race time – 6 hours and 33 minutes – before its prophetic significance hit her.

Matthew 6:33 reads, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” These - the words of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of Matthew - have guided Mary from her youth in Northbrook, Illinois, the one-time, speed-skating capitol of the world. There, she trained with three Olympic champions in speed skating - dreaming herself of bringing home a gold – and excelled in gymnastics and track-and-field.

But her home changed to Fergus Falls, Minnesota, and over time so did her athletic ambitions, along with her spiritual life and physical health. Yet, Matthew 6:33 remained a constant. Married in 1980, Pastors Steve and Mary Bangs today lead a thriving children's ministry, have four children and seven grandchildren. Six years after her marriage, Mary was diagnosed with a life-threatening disease.

Husband Steve, a fellow competitor and friend, joined by a ministry-school student, and a medical doctor didn't doubt the tenacity, resolve, courage, spirit and faith of Bang's training for the Half Ironman Triathlon (1.2 miles in water, 56 miles on bike, and 13 miles on foot), or that she would finish her race; what troubled them was Addison’s Disease, an autoimmune condition that left Bangs in a coma near death and tied to a bed in 1986.

Slightly over a month before the longest distance competition of her life (and second-place behind the former Olympic athlete), Bangs suffered an Addison’s crisis during an Olympic-Distance Triathlon praying, “God, I don't know if it's stubbornness, but I'm going to cross the finish line if I have to crawl over it.”

Cross it she did, her body shutting down and falling into the arms of Pastor Steve, who arrived in time with a jar of pickle juice. It, along with steroids and medications, neutralize hormonal deficiencies normally regulated by the body's adrenal glands. The condition impacts kidneys and livers and can lead to diabetes.

Resolved to compete six weeks later in one item on her “bucket list” - a Half Ironman Triathlon - the pastor enlisted help from her former endocrinologist, a student in the ministry school where she teaches, a close friend and fellow distance runner and, of course, husband Steve who is her biggest supporter.

Even before Mary lined up her support team, there was an intercessory prayer pastor at her church in Colorado, whose direct questions inspired her and brought Matthew 6:33 into sharp focus: “What did you like doing when you were a child, a teenager, an adult?”

“My two favorite things have always been studying and teaching the Bible, and athletic competition. After I answered those two questions, I knew God would be with me to the finish line,” she remembers thinking in advance of the September 2015 Half Ironman.

One of her students, Ben Miller, agreed to help Pastor Mary in training, particularly the cycling leg of the three-part event. He and Dr. Phil Hooper, who diagnosed the pastor's adrenal/thyroid condition almost 30 years ago, turned out be big supporters whose encouragement made the difference during the training and race itself. Bangs says she benefited not only from Hooper's medical and dietary advice and personal support, but from Miller's encouragement, which proved to be prophetic words that spurred her onto victory.

“It's something God set up so that you two could have a father/daughter day,” Miller said. “Race day is not a pass or fail,” the student told his teacher. “It is the day you get to be the apple of His eye. You will be all that He is watching. There is no defeat or fail in this. This is your worship. The pass/fail happened in training and preparation,” Miller told her.

“It was a spiritual thing that I don't know how to explain,” says Bangs, adding that the Holy Spirit spoke to her about strategies, including the words “don't overheat,” during the run and race segments. “I did feel my Heavenly Father's tangible presence on me, and I do believe that I was the apple of His eye.”

Friend Chris Vick, who's competed side-by-side Pastor Mary in numerous endurance events and insisted she go for her “personal Olympic gold medal” by competing in and finishing a Half Ironman, says she's amazed by her pastor's tenacity coupled with her wisdom.

“It was impressive to watch her push through difficulties in training, including an Addison’s crisis,” says Vick, who completed her own Half Ironman in a different age group. “When a lot of people would have given up, she did everything including contacting her doctor for wisdom,” she says.

Recalling his wife's triumph and his fear of her physical body's failure a month earlier, Pastor Steve talks emotionally talking about the dual realities they faced that day. “The tears come from emotional relief that the race was over. Her previous race experience, and nearly having to take her to the hospital had cast a pall of angst over me.

“Therefore, when she crossed the finish line and I saw how great she was, the pall lifted. Tears of relief welled up from inside. It was over but it was good,” Pastor Steve says.

Looking at her finish time, 6:33, Pastors Mary and Steve say they were reminded of God's faithfulness to them in their ministry and personal lives. By seeking first God's kingdom and His righteousness “all these things” - the Heavenly Father's pleasure, a personal gold medal, and an inconsequential disease when it counted - were added to them on race day.

Photo captions: 1)  Mary coming to the end of the race. 2) Mary takes off on her bike. 3) Mary on the dias. 4) Mary displays her awards. 5) Mary with her husband. 6) Steve Rees.

About the writer: Steve Rees is freelance Christian journalist who loves the church and writes about how it engages the culture and works toward fulfilling the Great Commission. He lives in Longmont, Colo. and attends Resurrection Fellowship, a nondenominational, missions-driven church that honors all the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the five-fold ministry offices. The church is in Loveland, Colo. Rees formerly worked as a newspaper reporter and was among the first journalists who wrote about Promise Keepers before it spread nationwide from Boulder, Colo. He can be contacted by e-mail at steverees@peoplepc.com 

** You may republish this or any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)

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Over 450 Baptisms of Iranian Believers

Over 450 Baptisms of Iranian Believers, says Ministry (Please use this version)

By Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST News Service

IRAN REGION (ANS – October 1, 2015) -- More than 240 Iranians were baptized recently in two large celebrations in the Iran region.

According to Elam Ministries (www.elam.com), a further 16 were baptized in a smaller service, and about 200 more are to be baptized at a fourth celebration.

“We praise God for every Iranian who has been baptized recently,” said a spokesperson for Elam Ministries.

“Seven friends, who were there to support those being baptized, responded to a call to submit their lives to Christ for the first time at one of last week's celebrations. These large baptism services are joyful day-long gatherings, with sessions of worship, preaching, prayer for the nation of Iran, Holy Communion and shared meals.”

One of the baptisms followed a conference which the entire church attended; the theme of unity threaded through all the teaching, and encouraged the church greatly.

“We thank you for praying and supporting us as we seek to serve and equip Iran’s growing church,” added the spokesperson for Elam Ministries. “Please pray for all those who were baptized, the seven new believers, and those who will be baptized soon.”

In a separate story, Elam Ministries explained, “Why we should pray for Christians post-persecution,”

The ministry said that those who have survived persecution often need just as much prayer as those currently enduring persecution. It is relatively common knowledge that Christians in Iran can be imprisoned for their faith. New arrests and prison sentences hit the prayer headlines quite regularly. But less well known is the potential long-term psychological damage that persecution can cause.

“Long after an abusive arrest, an extended stint in solitary, an intensive interrogation, or incarceration in a volatile ward, Christians can continue to suffer,” said the story. “Once released, the trauma is not necessarily over: whether it’s dark nightmares, flashbacks, paranoia, depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, the effects can sometimes be devastating and long-lasting. Especially for those who have endured physical or psychological torture, memories remain, fear and uncertainties cloud the mind, wounds need healing.

“Will you join us in praying for long-term healing for all those who are suffering following persecution? The support of friends, family and church members is vital for recovery; let’s pray for wisdom as they seek to love, care and pray for survivors. Let’s pray also that those that need professional counselling support would find it, and that all survivors would continue to bring their pain, memories and questions before Jehova Rapha- our God who heals.”

Photo captions: 1) Iranian believers worshiping the Lord on a beach. 2) Dan Wooding

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He is also the author of some 45 books.

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Hamas Prince’s Damascus Road Experience; Son of Terror Group Founder Learns to Love His Enemies

Hamas Prince’s Damascus Road Experience; Son of Terror Group Founder Learns to Love His Enemies

By Charles Gardner, Special to ASSIST News Service

ISRAEL (ANS -- October 2, 2015) -- Amidst growing tension on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, where rocks and firebombs are being thrown at riot police as Palestinian hatred for Israel threatens to boil over once more, there is still hope for peace.

Just ask Mosab Hassan Yousef, who grew up causing trouble in the West Bank and later switched sides after being sickened by the hypocrisy and deceit he witnessed.

“There is hope for peace in the Middle East, but it does not begin with political solutions or negotiations; it begins with the changing of individual hearts,” he writes in a new edition of his New York Times bestseller, Son of Hamas, which contains an update in the form of an extra chapter. And his story is now also told in The Green Prince, an award-winning documentary.

Mosab was just 18 when he was first arrested by the Israelis who found him in possession of weapons (that turned out not to work). He was the son of the founder and leader of the much-feared Hamas terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Israel.

After being severely beaten up during interrogation, he succumbed to the lure of being a collaborator. Although hating the Jews, he persuaded himself that he was a “double agent” with the ultimate intention of killing his new masters.

But as he witnessed fellow inmates being tortured by their Muslim “brothers” on the flimsiest evidence of being informers, he was increasingly nauseated by the insincerity of those among whom he mixed both in and out of jail.

They pretended their cause was for the love of their people, but in reality cared little for anything but lining their own pockets and giving full expression to their hatred of the “enemy.”

Ironically, his famous father was a loving family man caught up in political intrigue he didn’t fully understand.

At the same time Mosab was developing a close friendship with his contact for Shin Bet, the Israeli secret service, whose kindness was in sharp contrast to the brutal dealings of his Muslim colleagues.

Mosab ended up working for Shin Bet for ten years – with the codename Green Prince (as heir apparent to the green-flagged Hamas) – during which time he witnessed many gruesome scenes including the aftermath of suicide bombings and the bloodbath often ensuing from a clash between the IDF (Israeli Defense Force) and some of those he “shopped.”

Though at constant risk to his own life, he became a vital cog in Israel’s spy network and there is no doubt that many innocent lives were saved as a result.

In the midst of these shadowy activities, he had a literal ‘Damascus Road’ experience. He was walking past the imposing Damascus Gate leading into Jerusalem’s Old City when he was invited to a Bible study at the YMCA where he was introduced to the New Testament, and to Jesus.

He was powerfully impacted by the words of Jesus – especially his “Sermon on the Mount” and his call to “love your enemies” – which greatly affected his ongoing surveillance work; at times he even managed to persuade his bosses simply to arrest, rather than assassinate, dangerous men suspected of plotting mass murder.

He eventually broke away entirely from his Islamic roots and fully embraced Jesus as the Son of God. But his full, amazing story could not be told until he was safely in America, where the courts initially wanted to send him back – to almost certain death – because they wouldn’t believe his testimony.

Following his conscience, and his faith, has cost him dearly – his family, to whom he is devoted, have disowned him. Such is the price many with Mosab’s Muslim background have had to pay as disciples of Jesus.

Published by Tyndale Momentum, Son of Hamas was co-authored by ANS correspondent, Ron Brackin, and includes a new chapter on his U.S. court hearing.

Photo captions: 1) Mosab Hassan Yousef. 2) Book cover. 3) A busy market scene close to the Damascus Gate in Jerusalem's Old City, where Mosab first set out on his road to faith in Jesus. (Picture: Charles Gardner) 4) Charles Gardner praying for the peace of Jerusalem at the Western Wall two years ago.

About the writer: Charles Gardner is a veteran Cape Town-born British journalist working on plans to launch a new UK national newspaper reporting and interpreting the news from a biblical perspective. With his South African forebears having had close links with the legendary devotional writer Andrew Murray, Charles is similarly determined to make an impact for Christ with his pen and has worked in the newspaper industry for more than 41 years. Part-Jewish, he is married to Linda, who takes the Christian message around many schools in the Yorkshire town of Doncaster. Charles has four children and eight grandchildren. Charles can be reached by phone on +44 (0) 1302 832987, or by e-mail at chazgardner@btinternet.com 

Note: If you would like to help support the ASSIST News Service, please go to www.assistnews.net  and click on the DONATE button to make you tax-deductible gift (in the US), which will help us continue to bring you these important stories. If you prefer, you can make a check out to ASSIST and mail it to PO Box 609, Lake Forest, CA 92609, USA.

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Golf’s rising star Jordan Spieth puts Jesus first

Golf’s rising star Jordan Spieth puts Jesus first

By Mark Ellis and Michael Ashcraft, Special to ASSIST News Service

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA (ANS - October 2, 2015) -- According to Esquire magazine, Jordan Spieth is the new “savior” of golf, but he probably would shy away from such journalistic hyperbole: He knows there’s only one Savior.

The wunderkind, who just earned golf’s #1 ranking with a win at the FedEx Cup, is a quiet Christian who attends the PGA Tour’s Christian group with flamboyant buddy Bubba Watson.

“He goes to Bible study with us on the Tour here,” says Watson, who in April put the traditional snazzy green jacket on Spieth to symbolize his elite status with other Masters winners at Augusta.

On Sept. 27, Spieth sank putts from anywhere and everywhere on the green to win the $10 million Tour Championship, showing why golf legend Ben Crenshaw nicknamed him Wyatt Earp. On the 11th hole, the Texan dropped a 45-foot putt, a “dagger” that sank his closest competitor’s hopes of regaining the lead.

His five wins this year include two majors and winnings totaling $23 million – not bad for a 22-year-old. Spieth’s youth and dominance are strikingly similar to golf’s last and now-fallen Titan, Tiger Woods.

But while Woods was an intense competitor, a golfer who would swear profusely on camera and frolic with with ladies off-camera, Spieth projects a clean image of good sportsmanship and Christian conduct.

While other champs flaunt pictures with hot girlfriends, Spieth likes to pose with his autistic sister, 15-year-old Ellie.

“She’s my inspiration,” Spieth told the UK’s Telegraph. “She’s the funniest member of our family. I really love spending time with her. It is humbling to see her and her friends and the struggles they go through each day, which we take for granted. They are the happiest people in the world ”

When other Masters’ winners celebrate amid opulence and ostentation at one of Augusta’s many 5-star hotels, Spieth celebrated at a Chick-fil-A restaurant. He still drives the same Yukon truck from his youth.

Photo captions. 2) Taking a swing. 2) With his little sister, Ellie

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About the writer: Mark Ellis is senior correspondent for the ASSIST News Service and also the founder of www.Godreports.com , a website that shares stories, testimonies and videos from the church around the world to build interest and involvement in world missions.

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Eleven Christian Workers in Syria Crucified, Beheaded

Eleven Christian Workers in Syria Crucified, Beheaded

From Christian Aid Mission (www.christianaid.org) -- For Immediate Release

Contact: Amie Cotton APR, +1 (434) 327-1240, Amie@christianaid.org 

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (ANS -- October 5, 2015) --At several steps on their path to death by beheading and crucifixion last month, eleven indigenous Christian workers near Aleppo, Syria had the option to leave the area and live. The 12-year-old son of a ministry team leader also could have spared his life by denying Christ.

The indigenous missionaries were not required to stay at their ministry base in a village near Aleppo, Syria; rather, the ministry director who trained them had entreated them to leave. As the Islamic State (ISIS), other rebel groups and Syrian government forces turned Aleppo into a war zone of carnage and destruction, ISIS took over several outlying villages. The Syrian ministry workers in those villages chose to stay in order to provide aid in the name of Christ to survivors.

“I asked them to leave, but I gave them the freedom to choose,” said the ministry director, his voice tremulous as he recalled their horrific deaths. “As their leader, I should have insisted that they leave.”

They stayed because they believed they were called to share Christ with those caught in the crossfire, he said.

“Every time we talked to them,” the director said, “they were always saying, 'We want to stay here – this is what God has told us to do. This is what we want to do.' They just wanted to stay and share the gospel.”

Those who chose to stay could have scattered and hid in other areas, as their surviving family members did. On a visit to the surviving relatives in hiding, the ministry director learned of the cruel executions.

The relatives said ISIS militants on Aug. 7 captured the Christian workers in a village whose name is withheld for security reasons. On Aug. 28, the militants asked if they had renounced Islam for Christianity. When the Christians said that they had, the rebels asked if they wanted to return to Islam. The Christians said they would never renounce Christ.

The 41-year-old team leader, his young son and two ministry members in their 20s were questioned at one village site where ISIS militants had summoned a crowd. The team leader presided over nine house churches he had helped to establish. His son was two months away from his 13th birthday.

“All were badly brutalized and then crucified,” the ministry leader said. “They were left on their crosses for two days. No one was allowed to remove them.”

The martyrs died beside signs the ISIS militants had put up identifying them as “infidels.”

Eight other ministry team members, including two women, were taken to another site in the village that day (Aug. 28) and were asked the same questions before a crowd. The women, ages 29 and 33, tried to tell the ISIS militants they were only sharing the peace and love of Christ and asked what they had done wrong to deserve the abuse. The Islamic extremists then publicly raped the women, who continued to pray during the ordeal, leading the ISIS militants to beat them all the more furiously.

As the two women and the six men knelt before they were beheaded, they were all praying.

“Villagers said some were praying in the name of Jesus, others said some were praying the Lord's prayer, and others said some of them lifted their heads to commend their spirits to Jesus,” the ministry director said. “One of the women looked up and seemed to be almost smiling as she said, ‘Jesus!’”

After they were beheaded, their bodies were hung on crosses, the ministry director said, his voice breaking. He had trained all of the workers for their evangelistic ministry, and he had baptized the team leader and some of the others.

Hundreds of former Muslims in Syrian villages are in danger of being captured and killed by ISIS, which is fighting to establish a caliphate in which apostasy is punishable by death. The underground church in the region has mushroomed since June 2014, when ISIS began terrorizing those who do not swear allegiance to its caliphate, both non-Muslims and Muslims. Consequently, the potential for large-scale executions has grown along with the gains in ISIS-controlled territory.

The ministry assisted by Christian Aid Mission is providing resources and trying to find ways to evacuate these families by other routes.

Many of the ministry's teams also remain in Syria. Christian Aid Mission assists those who do not or cannot leave with the means to survive and operate their outreaches.

Even those who leave, however, may encounter ISIS militants and other criminals in refugee camps, said the leader of another ministry that Christian Aid Mission assists. He spoke of a Muslim from northern Syria who, like all men in areas that ISIS takes over, was coerced into joining the caliphate or being killed.

Recruited into ISIS, he fled the country after his brother was killed in the fighting. Disillusioned with ISIS but still adhering to Islam and its teaching that Christians and Jews are unclean “pigs,” he went to Amman, Jordan, as he had learned that relatives there were receiving aid from Christians.

The Muslim, whose name is withheld for security reasons, went to a Christian meeting with the intention of killing the aid workers gathered there. Something kept him from following through on his plan, though, and that night he saw Jesus in a dream, the ministry director said.

“The next day he came back and said, 'I came to kill you, but last night I saw Jesus, and I want to know what are you teaching – who is this One who held me up from killing you?'“ the director said. “He received Christ with tears, and today he's actually helping in the church, helping out other people. We're praying for lots of such Sauls to change to Pauls.”

The sorrow of the ministry team leader who lost eleven workers and one of their children last month has been deep, but he takes heart that their faithfulness could help change the hearts of persecutors.

“They kept on praying loudly and sharing Jesus until their last breath,” he said. “They did this in front of the villagers as a testimony for others.”

He asked for prayer for surviving family members and for himself.

“These things have been very hard on me,” he said. “What wrong did those people do to deserve to die? What is happening is more and more people are being saved. The ministry is growing and growing – in the past we used to pray to have one person from a Muslim background come to the Lord. Now there are so many we can barely handle all the work among them.”

For more information, please click here -- http://www.christianaid.org/News/2015/mir20151001.aspx  where you can out more on how you can help the situation.

Photo caption: 1) Aleppo was prized by rebel and government forces since fighting began in 2011. (Wikipedia). 2) Prelates survey the damage following an attack on Christians in Aleppo. (Credit: Melkite Archdiocese of Aleppo).

Note: Christian Aid Mission is an evangelical missionary organization based in Charlottesville, Virginia, that assists indigenous missionary ministries overseas through prayer, advocacy and financial support. Since 1953, Christian Aid Mission has identified, evaluated and assisted more than 1,500 ministries in more than 130 countries that are reaching the unreached for Christ in areas of the world where there is no witness for Christ, where Christians suffer from poverty or persecution, or where foreign missionaries are not allowed. Today, we assist more than 500 ministries overseas with tens of thousands of indigenous or native missionaries in the field. These ministries are currently working among more than 1,000 people groups in 100+ countries around the world. For more information, please visit www.christianaid.org  

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Leading African Pastor Escapes Death Amidst Renewed Violence

Leading African Pastor Escapes Death Amidst Renewed Violence

By Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST News Service, answritermike@gmail.com
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC (ANS, Oct.5, 2015) -- One of the top three religious leaders in the Central African Republic (CAR), who has won global recognition for his efforts to end the conflict, has escaped an assassination attempt, as the capital, Bangui, has seen a renewed wave of violence.

Coming just a few weeks before a planned referendum and subsequent October elections aimed at putting an end to the transitional government, this violence has now caused the interim President to cancel the elections.

According to an article by Illia Djadi, writing for World Watch Monitor, www.worldwatchmonitor.org, the President of CAR’s Evangelical Alliance, Rev. Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbangou, was targeted in an attack apparently triggered by the death of a young Muslim motorcycle taxi driver. His body was found in the predominantly Christian 5th district on Saturday, September 26, then taken to a mosque in the 3rd district, known also as Km5 – formerly considered by many as a stronghold of Séléka rebels, and a "no-go zone" for all non-Muslims.

World Watch Monitor says who killed the young taxi-driver and why are still unknown.

In its report, World watch monitor says that at about 9am on September 26, angry Muslim youths left the 3rd district and poured into the 5th district, brandishing automatic weapons, machetes, and raiding and destroying properties. They entered the Elim Church compound, where Rev. Guerekoyame-Gbangou’s house is located, asking for him.

"I left the compound at about 8.30. But some 30 minutes later, a group of young Muslims arrived at my house," Rev. Guerekoyame-Gbangou told World Watch Monitor.

"The assailants asked for ‘pastor Nicolas, who is pro-peace … but who always attacks us’. But they learned that I had already left the house,” the pastor said.

"They then told my family to leave the property. One of the assailants brandished a knife and threated to kill my older son, but another assailant prevented him from doing it."

World Watch Monitor reports the angry mob then looted all valuable items, before setting fire to the house. The assailants also ransacked other buildings in the compound, setting fire to them, and shooting randomly.

"Unfortunately they killed two people before leaving the compound," said Rev. Guerekoyame-Gbangou. "The victims, who had their throats cut, were displaced people who had sought refuge within our compound."

Rev. Guerekoyame-Gbangou’s family was unharmed and has moved to an undisclosed safe place, the news outlet said.

World Watch Monitor explained that CAR had experienced religious and ethnic unrest between mainly Muslim Séléka rebels and mainly animist "anti-balaka" militia for more than two years since Séléka seized power in March 2013. It was believed that the country was recovering after reconciliation efforts by the top Muslim and Christian clerics, which had led to them receiving a peace award in August.

The violence, the worst the capital has experienced this year, has dashed Bangui’s fragile stability, the news outlet said.

World Watch Monitor also said that early on the afternoon of September 26, "anti-balaka" ("anti-machete") militias started fighting back, leading to their deadly clashes with Muslim armed groups and ex- Séléka rebels. Witnesses reported people slaughtered or shot at close range, corpses littering the ground or thrown into wells. Places of worship and homes were looted and burned.

The news outlet reported the Catholic Saint Michel church was set ablaze, while Saint Mathias Parish church was ransacked and desecrated. A mosque and a Muslim radio headquarters were also attacked, as well as several international humanitarian organizations’ offices, whose relief stock and materials were looted.

Then news outlet said the violence continued despite a night curfew imposed by the authorities; the tension was still high with sporadic gun and weapon detonations heard on Tuesday. The violence caused President Samba-Panza to leave the UN General Assembly to rush home.

World Watch Monitor reported the UN said on Tuesday that at least 40 people have lost their lives since September 26, and nearly 30,000 people were forced to flee. But the death toll could be much higher, local sources told World Watch Monitor, as more bodies may be discovered, and hundreds are feared to be injured.

The news outlet said Rule of law was dealt a further blow when some 500 inmates broke out of the central prison in Bangui. Most of them are "anti-balaka," according to the BBC.

While deploring this new wave of violence, Rev. Guerekoyame-Gbangou said that the attack which targeted him will not undermine his commitment to peace in CAR.

"Any commitment has a price. As a pastor and ambassador of peace, I cannot focus on my interests as a person, or my family," he said.

"The interest of the Central African people is the most important, provided that we are successful in our mission to reconcile the Central Africans and bring peace."

The other two members of the interfaith platform – the Archbishop of Bangui, Msgr. Dieudonné Nzapalainga and Imam Omar Kobine Layama, the President of the Islamic Community of Central Africa – have also appealed for calm and restraint.

In addition to the violence, World Watch Monitor stated that hundreds of people demonstrated to express their discontent against French troops, accused of inertia over armed groups – responsible, the demonstrators said, for the violence.

The news agency explained that opposition parties called for mass demonstrations on Wednesday, Sept. 30, against the UN and French forces to make way for the reconstitution of the national armed forces, the resignation of the interim President and the start of a new transition.

Rev. Guerekoyame-Gbangou said an urgent priority is to disarm the militias and to restore the national armed forces, to enable them to play their task of protecting the country from inter-communal violence.

Main Image: Rev. Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbangou (World Watch Monitor)

Other photo on this page : Left to right: Imam Omar Kobine Layama, Msgr. Dieudonné Nzapalainga and Rev. Nicolas Guerekoyame-Gbangou collect their awards at the UN in Switzerland in August, 2015. (Courtesy World Watch Monitor).

Photo Three: Michael Ireland

About the Writer: Michael Ireland is a Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, as well as a volunteer Internet Journalist and Ordained Minister who has served with ASSIST Ministries and ASSIST News Service since its beginning in 1989. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China, and Russia. Click http://paper.li/Michael_ASSIST/1410485204 to see a daily digest of Michael's stories for ANS.

** You may republish this and any of ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)

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Egyptian land dispute threatens inter-religious flashpoint

Egyptian land dispute threatens inter-religious flashpoint

By Dan Wooding, Founder of the ASSIST News Service

ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT (ANS – October 5, 2015) -- What in a normal setting is an everyday land dispute can quickly turn into a full-blown “sectarian” flashpoint with adverse effects on the wider community, when one side of the feud happens to belong to the wrong religion.

According to World Watch Monitor (www.worldwatchmonitor.org), this is what Hamdi Makanoti, his family, and local Copts, are facing in a district of Alexandria, Egypt’s second biggest city.

According to veteran Coptic newspaper Watani , two years ago a local Muslim family, al-Hutti, unjustifiably claimed land belonging to the Makanotis in Amreyya, a district of about a million inhabitants to the west of the large coastal city. The land, said to have belonged to the Copts for more than 20 years, is reported to be about 10 acres of agricultural land next to the village church of the Holy Virgin and St George.

“Although the Coptic family have since successfully asserted their right to their land, including through both common law and more regular legal channels, the Egyptian police were unable to restore the Makanotis to their family property, as large numbers of locals demonstrated around the area, forcing the police to withdraw,” said World Watch Monitor (WWM).

“On Sept 20 police tried once again to allow the Copt to regain his land. Again they met with a large number of demonstrators. A Hutti man was shot dead: a forensic report quoted by Makanoti’s lawyer said the young man was killed by police fire.

“However, the angry crowd immediately blamed the Makanouti side, using the mosque loudspeakers to blame the Christians for killing a Muslim. Large crowds of local armed Bedouins gathered, clashed with the police, and the resistance lasted all day. Watani reports that an hour after the police had been forced to withdraw, more neighboring villagers arrived to swell the crowd, which marched on Makanouti’s house.

“St. George’s church was pelted amid rallying cries of ‘Allahu Akbar’ by a whipped-up crowd, reports say. Reports say four Copts’ houses were damaged; two people, Demian Maher (35) and Therese Hanna were injured and are still in hospital, and threats were made of possible mass evictions.”

Finally, WWM reported, moderate local tribespeople arrived and intervened, bringing to an end the day’s stand-off. However, local Christians reported being terrified of going out or leaving their homes.

“We will take your lands and homes!”

Warnings the Christian side of the dispute say they have received include: “We will take your lands and homes, like it or not. Leave, or we will kill you if you force us to it!”

How serious the threats are for now remains to be seen. One thing is more certain. A forced recourse to “local reconciliation sessions”, as they are known in Egypt, would make the Makanouti family settle for a resolution that relinquishes their rights in exchange for keeping the peace.

More ominous would be a return to events similar to what happened in 2012, when a number of Copts in the same district were impressed upon to leave the locality for fear for their safety. That followed reports of allegedly improper photos taken by a Christian man of a Muslim girl.

World Watch Monitor concluded by saying that through the intervention of a local politician representing the Makanoutis, just such a one-sided agreement was reached on October. 4 to impose a four-month truce which would prohibit members of either of the disputing clans to set foot on the land. Although this would prevent the Makanouti family from attending the St. George Church adjacent to their land, they signed the agreement as a “goodwill gesture,” saying they would attend another church in a nearby village for the next four months. But the Houtis did not attend the reconciliation session or sign the agreement, Watani reported.

At the time, a Coptic Church ad-hoc council described this as a “forced repatriation” of Copts.

Photo images: 1) Police have so far failed to restore the land to its Coptic owners, 2015 (Watani). 2) Pope Tawadros II, the 118th pope of the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria and Patriarch. 3) Dan Wooding with Norm Nelson of Compassion Radio besides the pyramids in Egypt.

About the writer: Dan Wooding, 74, is an award-winning author, broadcaster and journalist who was born in Nigeria of British missionary parents, and is now living in Southern California with his wife Norma, to whom he has been married for more than 52 years. They have two sons, Andrew and Peter, and six grandchildren who all live in the UK. Dan is the founder and international director of ASSIST (Aid to Special Saints in Strategic Times) and the ASSIST News Service (ANS). He is also the author of some 45 books. He has reported for ANS from Egypt on several occasions.

** You may republish this or any of ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net)

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Indian Parliamentarians Propose Ban on Conversions

Indian Parliamentarians Propose Ban on Conversions

 

By Jeremy Reynalds, Senior Correspondent, ASSIST News Service (jeremyreynalds@gmail.com)  

 

INDIA (ANS -- October 7, 2015) -- Two members of India’s ruling BJP party, one in the Lower and one in the Upper House of the national Parliament, plan to introduce a Private Members’ Bill, each in their respective House, to introduce a national law against conversion from Hinduism.

 

According to a story by World Watch Monitor (WWM), that would then force a debate in the Parliament. 

 

The MP in the Upper House, Tarun Vijay, a former journalist, represents Dehra Dun in Uttarakhand (formerly Uttaranchal) state on the northern border of India, between Himachal Pradesh and Nepal. 

 

Himachal Pradesh has already introduced a Freedom of Religion Act, which WWM said seems harmless in name but attempts to regulate freedom to change one’s religion.

 

In an interview with The Tribune, he said the recently released Indian “religion” census had indicated that, “For the first time, the population of Hindus has been reported to be less than 80 per cent. We have to take measures to arrest the decline. It is very important to keep the Hindus in majority in the country.”

 

He continued, “My argument is that religion must remain a matter of personal choice. But in India, it has become a political tool in the hands of foreign powers, who are targeting Hindus to fragment our nation again on communal lines. This has to be resisted in national interest and in the interest of all minorities in India.”

 

Vijay is reported to have said his proposed bill will advocate for a “non-bailable warrant to be issued against the person found engaged in the act (of conversion), along with a ten-year jail (sentence).” 

 

WWM reported Vijay said, “For the first time, the population of Hindus has been reported to be less than 80 per cent. We have to take measures to arrest the decline. It is very important to keep the Hindus in majority in the country.” 

 

The MP in the Lower House, Yogi Adityanath, is a senior BJP legislator, who became head priest at a well-known Hindu temple in Gorakhpur after the death in Sept. 2014 of his “spiritual father.” 

 

He is also the founder of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, a social, cultural and nationalist group of youths who seek to provide a right-wing Hindu platform.

 

In June, Adityanath said that that those opposing yoga and surya namaskar, a Hindu salutation to the sun god within yoga, “should leave India or drown themselves in the ocean.”

 

On June 21, the first-ever International Yoga Day was observed from New Delhi to New York. In yoga’s birthplace, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself led a yoga session attended by 37,000 people in the heart of the Indian capital.

 

The date was also a Sunday, which is, WWM said, why several of India’s Christian organizations voiced their opposition – not to yoga itself, but to another big national event scheduled on a Christian holy day.

 

“Statements such as that (about leaving India or drowning in the ocean) make minority communities suspicious about the intentions of this government,” a statement from the National Christian Council of India said at the time.

 

It continued, “We urge the Government to be sensitive to the different cultural and religious practices in our country.”

 

The two Private Members’ Bills come shortly after a sixth Indian state has started the process of introducing an “anti-conversion law.”

 

These moves also come as Hindu nationalism has come under criticism from the Muslim population of India, in the aftermath of last week’s lynching of a Muslim in Uttar Pradesh, who had allegedly been storing and consuming beef at his home.

 

A total ban on beef was enforced in the west Indian state of Maharashtra in March, outlawing the slaughter, consumption or even possession of beef. A number of other states tightened their laws, including Uttar Pradesh.

 

At the time, WWM reported, commentators suggested the ban would hit minorities hardest. India is a secular nation where almost half the population eats beef, though most of the majority Hindus abstain, believing that cows are sacred. Some Hindus do eat beef, as well as Dalits (16.6% of the population), Muslims (14.88%), Christians (2.3%) and Sikhs (1.9%).

 

“This ban is an insult to the poor and the Dalits,” said Rev. Manohar Chandra Prasad, a pastor of the Church of South India (CSI).

 

Now, after the lynching of the man in Uttar Pradesh state, the WWM said the BBC reported the village’s headman, Ahsaan Chaudary, said “the situation now is such that a Muslim villager can’t buy a cow and bring it home. We will be attacked or may even be killed. It is easy to accuse that the cow is being taken to be slaughtered.” 

 

For more information visit www.worldwatchmonitor.org

 

Photo captions: 1) The Dalits of India still do the most menial of jobs (AFP). 2) Jeremy and Elma Reynalds.

 

About the writer: Jeremy Reynalds is Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, a freelance writer and also the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, www.joyjunction.org. He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "From Destitute to Ph.D." Additional details on "From Destitute to Ph.D." are available at www.myhomelessjourney.com. Reynalds lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico with his wife, Elma. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@gmail.com. 

 

Note: If you would like to help support the ASSIST News Service, please go to www.assistnews.net  and click on the DONATE button to make you tax-deductible gift (in the US), which will help us continue to bring you these important stories.  

** You may republish this and any of our ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net) 

 

 

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Militants Bring Islamist Brutality to Refugee Camps

Militants Bring Islamist Brutality to Refugee Camps

October 8, 2015

Refugees from Syria at a bus station in Istanbul, Turkey, including a wheelchair-bound man unable to get medical treatment, could encounter Islamic extremist militants in tent camps.

Syrian militants are among refugees fleeing to other countries, and they don't leave their Islamic extremist practices behind. They have brought brutality and a culture of fear into some refugee camps, the director of a ministry in the Middle East said.
In United Nations camps in Jordan, Islamist gangs bring the same practices that refugees have fled: coercion to join terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS), conflict between militias on both sides of the civil war and the criminal buying and selling of females as sex slaves.
"The Muslim gangs come as refugees, but they have their agendas," said the ministry director, whose name is withheld for security reasons. "They're like a mafia. People are even killed inside the camps, and the refugees are afraid to say if they saw somebody get killed. If you ask them, they'll say, 'I don't know, I was asleep.'"
Formed in 1990 to bring the gospel to Arabs in several countries in the Middle East, the ministry began providing food parcels, medicines and other aid to refugees from Syria in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon after civil war broke out in Syria in 2011. It also provides aid to displaced people within Syria.
Only 20 percent of the Syrian refugees in Jordan are living in refugee camps, he said, and the ministry has found a larger harvest of souls among Syrians outside the camps; most in Jordan have managed to find apartments subsidized by aid organizations.
U.N. refugee camps offer little refuge, he said.
"The last time I went inside a camp, I had a policeman with me," the ministry director said. "The camps are dangerous because they have ISIS, Iraqi militias and Syrian militias. It's another place for gangs. They're killing inside the camps, and they're buying and selling ladies and even girls."
Inside the camps, ISIS treats the men much as they do in Syria – telling them that they will either swear allegiance to the caliphate or be killed, he said. ISIS militants try to do in secret what they did openly in Syria.
In territory claimed by the ISIS caliphate in Syria, he said, the militants call all the men of an occupied town or village to the town center.
"If you're a man and you stay home when they call, you're killed," the director said. "So you go out and they tell you the rules: Why they're there, and how they're going to give you a chance to be a real Muslim, because they say they know how to make real Muslims."
If someone consents to join the caliphate, but the militants sense that his heart is not really with them, they will also kill him for that, he added. Likewise, if they call out the men and they realize that someone knows his neighbor is hiding but doesn't turn him in, the one who doesn't reveal his neighbors' whereabouts will be beheaded, he said.
"No one could flee from their hands," he said. "They don't ask you. They bring you to the middle of town and they gather everyone – this happens almost every day – and they say, 'He hid his neighbor and he knew about it,' and they cut his head off in front of everyone."
In Jordan, ISIS members – whether coerced or voluntary – and other Syrian militants may be found outside the refugee camps, but they are less able to impose their reign of terror on society as a whole. Signs of the ISIS presence outside the camps are more subtle.
"Many refugee women have husbands who are with ISIS in Syria," the director said. "We find these poor women with expensive iPads, so how did they get them? Their husbands who are in ISIS are sending money to them. We still want to reach them for Christ, of course."
Reaching any Middle Eastern Muslim, much less one associated with ISIS, with the gospel is a delicate, gradual process, and the ministry's 32 full-time workers and 400 volunteers throughout the region are trained to initiate relationships, answer doubts, share the good news of Christ's salvation and develop disciples.

Syrian refugee children stuck in Istanbul, Turkey, after the government refused to allow them to board buses for Greece.

One member of ISIS from northern Syria came to visit his relatives who had fled to Jordan because he had heard Christians were providing them aid, the director said. He intended to kill the Christian workers providing aid to his relatives, who were not living in a refugee camp. After hearing the gospel and witnessing the love of the Christians, he put his trust in Christ.
"He first saw how Islam brainwashed him about Christianity, and how that contrasted with the reality of what he saw in the Christians," the director said. "And we're talking about an area of Jordan that has three Salafist [a strict, fundamentalist branch of Sunni Islam] mosques. They raise up people to go and fight."
The former Muslim extremist militant was so enthusiastic in sharing his faith with the Salifis that he quickly put himself in danger, he said.
"He even got threats from them, and that's when I began trying to calm him down, because otherwise they may kill him," the director said. "They may take him and create a big threat among the refugees. We need to work very quietly and slowly."
Showing the love of Christ is the starting point for gospel outreach, and that is how the ministry has undertaken its vision of fulfilling Christ's commission to make disciples of the unreached. Founded originally to reach Arabs by Arabs, it has expanded its vision to reach Bedouins, Gypsies, Druze, Kurds and Alawites.
"We have had to follow some clever methods that outweigh the intelligence of any of us," he said. "We certainly know that God is behind these methods. We have witnessed the fruit and many great experiences throughout these years that made us realize that God is the one leading us."

To help indigenous missionaries meet needs, you may contribute online using the form below, or call (434) 977-5650. If you prefer to mail your gift, please mail to Christian Aid Mission, P.O. Box 9037, Charlottesville, VA 22906. Please use Gift Code: 400REF. Thank you!

Lamentations

Lamentations  

Fatigue, hunger and thirst for a Syrian refugee family that walked for hours to Istanbul, Turkey as they tried to get to Greece leave a young boy in tears. Since a photo was published last month of the body of a 3-year-old Syrian refugee washed up on a Turkish beach, those fleeing Syria are more apt to try to reach Europe by land, but the Turkish government refused to allow this family and other Syrians to board buses for Greece. “They can’t go back to their countries, and they are scared to go to Europe [by sea] after seeing the picture of the dead kid,” said the director of a ministry providing aid in refugee camps in Turkey. “Actually, before that event, thousands of them died, but that event affected them a lot.” The ministry is providing tents, vitamins, food, diapers, baby food and cleaning supplies. “These people are tired from the sun, illnesses and the lack of healthy nutrition,” he said. “The people were about to crush each other for two pieces of sugar that fell on the street.”

Help Establish a New School for ISIS Victims

 

Help Establish a New School for ISIS Victims

You can see the smiles on their faces. Joyful to be back in school! These children lost everything when their families were forced to flee following ISIS attacks. Now, they live in shelters, warehouses and vacated apartments. Their parents cannot work or provide schooling.

The Voice of the Martyrs is partnering with local Christian leaders to meet the educational needs for 150 of these children. Nearly half of the $150,000 budget for the new school has been raised, and you can help ensure the school is fully supported for the 2015/2016 school year.

Meet the children in this short video clip:

Watch the video

Partnership of Christian Groups Prevents Pakistani Christians’ Detainment in ‘Horrific’ Jail

Partnership of Christian Groups Prevents Pakistani Christians’ Detainment in ‘Horrific’ Jail

By Michael Ireland, Senior Reporter, ASSIST New Service answritermike@gmail.com

BANGKOK, THAILAND (ANS, October 9, 2015) -- Royal Thai police have arrested 26 Pakistani Christian asylum seekers, including children, from an area called Pracha Songkhro 28 in Bangkok, Thailand.

According to the British Pakistan Christian Association, (BPCA) www.britishpakistanichristians.org, on Wednesday, October 6, the terrified families were arrested very late at night from a condo called Phasuk mansion, taken to Huai Khwang police station and from there will eventually be transferred to the Immigration Detention Centre (IDC).

“Due to an extremely slow processing time none of these sufferingfamilies have ever been assessed for asylum determination by the UNHCR, and in fact many of them have assessment interviews scheduled for up to two years from now, a dismaying and unacceptable delay which has left them extremely vulnerable,” BPCA reported.

The BPCA officer in Thailand, Christian Malik, called Pastor Joshua who was amongst the victims. He described the desperate conditions they are facing inside the IDC: "We have been in the police station since yesterday evening and we have not yet eaten any food. The younger children have been sobbing for milk and we have no provisions, this is an alarming situation. We are all having to cope with the trauma of being locked up, despite not believing we are criminals."

Pastor Joshua spoke of their hope in God and their undying belief that God will help them. He said: “We continue worshipping and praying, it gives us confidence and enables us to bear witness among the non-believers. We hope to rescue and baptize the lost souls inside the IDC."

Malik contacted legal aid representatives at Asylum Access, an NGO working in Thailand, to see how they could help. They explained that the system was slow and rigid: “The immigration police undertake sweeps in asylum communities across Bangkok during the first 10 days of every month. There is no mechanism in place to rescue these victims -- they simply have to go through the legal process."

Malik also described the situation faced by arrested victims. He said: "Children have been locked up, along with their parents, and appallingly there is no provision of milk for babies and scarce food provision. It is completely inhumane. Families have been taken from their makeshift homes leaving doors wide open, which inevitably results in the loss of all their savings and belongings. Living in cramped cells is demoralizing, and after even a short time of being packed in with so many other detainees contagious disease is rampant."

Wilson Chowdhry of BPCA commented: “We are so thankful to God that working with the Jubilee Campaign; Voice of the Persecuted; TrotB Ministries, Farrukh Saif Foundation and Papa Thongchai of Urdu Church in the Hands of God, we all have been able to raise the necessary funds to pay the overstay court fines for 12 of the asylum seekers.”

Chowdhry stated that a few of those detained declined help, deciding instead to take a risk and endure Central Jail with the hopes of somehow raising the necessary funds to bribe Thai police into releasing them, thus avoiding detainment in the IDC and needing to raise funds for bail. “Paying the overstay fine prevents a person going to Central Jail but bail still needs to be paid at a later date to avoid further detention in the IDC,” he said.

Chowdhry added: “The costs of paying the fines would have been a huge burden on any of our charities individually, but by breaking convention and proving charities can work together, we have successfully helped the traumatized victims.”

Lois Kanalos of Voice of the Persecuted said: "Praise God! He achieved the impossible again, leaving no doubt who is behind us."

BPCA states that paying this fine prevents these families from being moved for 35 days “to the horrific Central Jail where they would be placed in the general prison population amongst rapists and murderers. The men are restrained naked in shackles, their heads shaved, and women are made to remove their underwear and jump up and down to show they have nothing concealed while men ogle. Mothers are separated from their children, and incredulously even from their babies who are then neglected and not provided any milk or nappies (diapers).” BPCA explained that from Central Jail the detainees would again be moved to the deplorable IDC where 'food' consists of cucumber in hot water.

Chowdhry concluded: “We know that our supporters will agree that this would be a horrendous fate to befall anyone, and being able to prevent it for these families is exhilarating for us at the BPCA, and we would love to be able to do much more. To free each individual from IDC we need to raise a further £1,000GBP ($1,530USD) for each of them for their bail fees, which will entitle them to a two year protection from re-arrest.”

Main image: Pastor Joshua was among those detained. (BPCA Photo)

Other Image: Children were among those rounded up by Thai police (BPCA Photo).

Bio Image: Michael Ireland

About the Writer: Michael Ireland is a Senior Correspondent for the ASSIST News Service, as well as a volunteer Internet Journalist and Ordained Minister who has served with ASSIST Ministries and ASSIST News Service since its beginning in 1989. He has reported for ANS from Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Israel, Jordan, China, and Russia. Click http://paper.li/Michael_ASSIST/1410485204 to see a daily digest of Michael's stories for ANS.

** You may republish this and any of ANS stories with attribution to the ASSIST News Service (www.assistnews.net