Category: Uncategorized

Five years since Raymond Koh’s kidnapping

It’s been five years since Pastor Raymond Koh was abducted in plain sight in the streets of Malaysia. The Koh family still has not found their closure. There have been no new updates on his whereabouts, but the family desperately seeks to find answers, putting pressure on the government to keep working on the case until it is resolved.

OD local partners recently visited Susanna to give her a new stack of letters she has received from believers in North America. Susanna was so appreciative of the letters saying, “I still have to get through the ones I received from my recent trip to the States. I try to write them back too – those letters that come with a mailing address. But this makes me so happy, and Jonathan would be so happy too!” Susanna and her son, Jonathan, recently took a trip to the United States in October 2021. There they met with various prayer partners and other supporters who have been encouraging the family since 2017. She also met new friends and prayer partners who were loving, gracious, and hospitable towards them. She couldn’t stop talking about how grateful she was towards her international brothers and sisters in Christ who have been so faithful in sharing her story after all these
years. 

Susanna will be hosting another candlelight vigil for Pastor Raymond this year on the 13th of February 2022. It will not be a very large gathering as there are still many COVID restrictions, but there will be a live stream for those unable to physically attend the vigil. Susanna has asked us to continue to pray with her as she attends the next case management hearing. It was originally scheduled on Monday, 31st of January 2022, but was
postponed to an indefinite date. She has asked us to pray that there will be no delays in this case. Pray also for strength for the family as they face yet another year without Raymond.

To say that these five years have been hard would be an understatement, but every prayer, every word of encouragement, and all the effort every person has put into to keep Pastor Raymond’s story alive has been a beacon of hope for the Koh family. Nothing goes unnoticed, nothing has been taken for granted and nothing will be. Susanna says, of your prayers: “If it wasn’t for them, I don’t know where we’d be now.” 

Pray


1. Please continue to pray for the Koh family as they navigate another year without Raymond. Pray that God would continue to grant them favour and anointing on their lives.

2. Pray for the case management hearing – that it will not be delayed, better yet, it would be great if the case could be pushed forward so there isn’t such a large gap between one hearing and another.

Boko Haram survivor deals with trauma and rejection

Agnes John is just one of the countless young women whose life was impacted permanently by Boko Haram. At 19, Agnes was kidnapped from her home in Nigeria by the extremist group. Two years later, she escaped – but the lingering shame, trauma, and rejection that so many former captives experience still overshadows her life. 

Captivity with Boko Haram

When Agnes speaks about that day in early January 2019 when Boko Haram militants came to her village, she seems almost dispassionate, as if she is speaking about someone else’s life. “We were working in the fields of our farm when armed men approached us. They kidnapped three of us. They later killed my two friends. I am the only one living.”


She is still traumatized. In the hands of her captors, life was as horrific as one can only imagine. “We suffered a lot during our time in captivity. They forced us to work hard for them. They kept pushing us to denounce Christ…I was given to a woman who was married to one of the fighters. In secret the woman was still a Christian. She told me to fake it. That if these people forced me to denounce Christ, I should say yes, but deep down within me I should hold on to Christ. And then, during times of Muslim prayer, I should pray to Christ instead of their ‘Allah’.”
It was an impossible decision. “The woman warned me that if I did not want to be killed, like my two friends, then I should just do what they said. So, I told them that I agreed to become a Muslim.”


Her decision kept her alive, but it didn’t necessarily make things easier for Agnes. “I suffered a lot of violence in their hands. Especially when I sometimes still mentioned the name Jesus. A few times they beat me up until I was unconscious.”


Through it all, Agnes often recalled a song her father taught her and her siblings. “When my siblings and I grew up, we were sometimes very worried that people would attack us. At those moments, my dad sang this song to us. ‘God will never forsake us. God will never abandon us. Even when there is suffering and persecution, God will never leave us.’” 

Escape and rejection

The song and promises from scripture kept her going. “In the Psalms there is a verse that says something like, no matter the troubles and suffering you go through, hold on to God. He will deliver you. It really helped to reduce worrying. I had strong faith that I would meet my family (again) someday. Those verses greatly encouraged me. And also, the woman I stayed with, was deeply rooted in God’s Word. So, it helped me a lot to hold on.”

After two years Agnes finally had the opportunity to escape.

“The day I escaped, I was sent with another young girl to go and look for vegetables in the forest. We were escorted by two armed guys. When we went a bit far into the forest, they said we should stay and pick vegetables. Because they had to go somewhere (but would come back for us.) They left us alone. Then the girl I was with, told me to run with her and find a way out to freedom. After a long walk we approached a village just close to my village.

“But I couldn’t recognize many things, because everything had changed. The village was deserted. The buildings were all destroyed. But we decided to walk into the village (anyway).” There Agnes and her friend saw soldiers who brought them to a small camp where the Nigerian army keeps abducted people who escaped or are rescued. Agnes had to wait until a family member could come and officially identify her.

During those two years with Boko Haram, Agnes probably dreamt of the day she would be reunited with her family, imagining her mother running towards her with open arms, her father hugging her tightly and her siblings singing and dancing because their little sister had returned. But reality was far removed from the dream.

Because no one came for her.

The day I found freedom, I felt so much joy in my heart. I stayed with the soldiers, but nobody from my family cared to come and pick me up. I began to wonder… Nobody came to see me. My mom and dad were too far away, in another town. But even relatives and friends who were staying nearby refused to come and welcome me because they were regarding me as a ‘Boko Haram wife.’ They had already condemned me.”

This is sadly a common occurrence among Boko Haram kidnap survivors. Open Doors often meets young women who bravely escape, only to find that their communities, and even their families, reject and shame them. The stigma attached to women who escape is difficult to understand and deeply rooted in the false perception that they have become indoctrinated, and any children born in captivity carry the seed of Boko Haram. Finally, Agnes’s sister came to fetch her and with her she brought sad news. “She informed me that my father was critically ill and he was receiving treatment. For two years I didn’t see my father. Then even after I returned I still didn’t see him… my father passed away the week I came back home.”

“When I came back home, I refused to step out of the house because of how people were talking about me. I wasn’t shown love at all. No one came to greet me. All they did was to laugh and sigh with contempt. At that point I told my sister that if I had known that this is how I would be treated, that I would have remained in the forest or would rather be dead.”

“For a time, I even left my home and community to see if would find peace. But I haven’t found it. Luckily these days things are becoming better, even though sometimes people still insult me.” Recovery has not been easy for Agnes or her family. Her relationship with her mother is strained at times and more time is needed for them to come to terms with the past, and mend their bond. Thanks to your support, Agnes, and many others like her have not remained alone in their suffering. Your support has enabled Open Doors to find women like Agnes and offer them integrated help through things like trauma care to support their physical and emotional recovery.

Prayer

Although Agnes was able to escape, she also represents probably thousands more women and children who are still in the hands of Boko Haram.
“I want all believers in Christ to pray for the many girls still in captivity. Ask God to intervene. Also pray for me, that God will bring an end to the rejection I am going through. Pray also for my family members and community that have rejected me, that God will open their eyes to see that what they are doing is not good.”

Brokenness and Healing: Persecution in Eritrea

If it’s possible to be an “underrated” country of persecution, Eritrea might be it. It sits at 6 on the 2022 World Watch List, but Open Doors does not often get the chance to talk about it. But Christians continue to face severe persecution despite geopolitical change that had many hoping for better days. Since 2002 when the government outlawed worship outside of Sunni Islam and the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran branches of Christianity, thousands of Christians have been imprisoned for defying that law.

One of them is Shiden*.

A man in his 30s, Shiden became a Christian in his late teens. He knew the risks of following Christ. Sure enough, when he was in his early 20s, he was caught in secret worship and arrested with around 40 others. He went on to spend more than a decade in 3 different prisons.

During this time, Shiden faced exposure to severe temperatures, sickness-inducing lack of sanitation, and regular taunts that he could end his suffering by renouncing his faith. He refused to give in, and for that, he endured regular, extended solitary confinement in a space that resembled, in size and in atmosphere, a coffin more than a cell.

Once he was briefly “released” into national service, but when spies found a few precious sections of the Bible with him, he was back in solitary confinement for another three months. He saw no one.

Brokenness

Shiden was eventually sent home unexpectedly and without any explanation. He was gladly reunited with his family, but the devastation wasn’t over. Even the victory of leaving prison intact faith wasn’t enough to stave off the trauma. After all the physical and emotional torture, Shiden was a broken man.

“When he was released, he was too skinny. He stuttered when he spoke,” his mother told us.

Shiden struggled to come to grips with the fact that he had missed out on so much: education, career, marriage, fatherhood… So deep became his sense of loss and the battle to process all he had experienced in prison, that his brother, John, and their mother feared for the worst. John told us, “Since his release we have seen Shiden change in front of our eyes day-by-day. He fell into deep depression, and there are times when he is completely irrational. We have to watch him all the time, even at night, to make sure that he does not harm himself.”

John sobbed when Shiden shared some of the things he had been through during his incarceration. But it helped him understand to some extent what caused his younger brother’s bouts of severe anger followed by a despondency that caused him to sleep for days.

Sadly, most of the Church’s resources are channeled towards supporting Christian prisoners and their families during the incarceration, leaving very little capacity to offer the specialized care long-time prisoners like Shiden need upon release. Thousands of others who spent time in one of the many prisons that form part of expansive network of formal and informal incarceration institutions, face similar challenges.

Healing

When we recently connected with Shiden’s mother, the elderly woman told us: “Glory be to God. My child is doing so much better. Now, when I give him food to eat, he eats…”

But Shiden’s battle continues. John told us that Shiden still gets frustrated about having missed out on so many things while he was in prison, and by the seeming lack of options available to him in carving out a fruitful life. “Sometimes he gives up. He feels very lonely,” John explained. “I try to encourage him by telling him, ‘God will strengthen you. God is here; do not give up. You are a hero of the faith. He will recompense your love.’ When he feels sad, I remind him, ‘Do not look to man. You belong to God. He alone can help you. Hope in Him!’”

And although things do feel overwhelming at times, John remains hopeful because of the progress he has seen in his brother. “God’s grace is limitless. Although it has not been easy for him, Shiden has come so far. And these days he often encourages me by reminding me of the story about the fathers of faith in Hebrews 11. He says, ‘I will serve the Lord until I die; I want to serve the Lord for the rest of my days; I want to be a hero of the faith too and one day in the future claim the crown of righteousness that is laid up for me, which the Lord will award to me on that day.”

The importance prayer support cannot be overstated. “The prayers of righteous people have availed much,” John concluded. “Please continue to pray for him: I believe God will continue to help Shiden.”

Prayer

  • Please pray for complete healing from brokenness for Shiden.
  • Pray that that the Lord will make a way for Shiden to find a vocation that will allow him to live a fruitful and productive life
  • Pray that God will work in Eritrea and the government will allow for greater freedom of religion.

Eritrea

Open Doors has been involved in Eritrea through the local church since the 1990s. Our vision is to see a strong church that is holistically empowered to support one another and disciple members so that they remain faithful and reach out to others in the face of persecution. We work to:

  • Enable the church to respond biblically to persecution.
  • Empower the church economically
  • Enable discipleship of all believers

Trauma Care in Nigeria

Trauma care in Nigeria is vital for the Church. While it’s not number one overall on the World Watch List, Nigeria ranked number one in the category of violent persecution. Every day countless Christians are crippled by violent persecution and instability. One family can testify of the radical impact the brutality has had on them. Last year, Pastor Steven David*, his wife Ruth, and their five daughters’ lives were almost destroyed in Fulani militant violence. Open Doors invited them to the Shalom Trauma Centre. They accepted the invitation hoping to heal and regain the dignity they lost in September. (Please note that this story contains recounts of sexual assaults that can be upsetting.)

The Capture

One evening in September 2020, Ruth and the girls were alone at home while Steven* was away attending to church matters. A loud banging on the door abruptly stopped the women’s banter. The banging grew louder and threatening. When Ruth finally opened the door, their fears were confirmed – armed Fulani men were waiting for her. They wanted money, but Ruth had nothing to give them. They decided that the daughters would be their payment and ordered them outside.  

The girls were forced to walk through the nearby bush. “We trekked for two days barefoot, and the road was rocky. “My sisters and I kept crying…” Damaris, the eldest, shared.

“We finally reached our location in the evening, it was a very big camp, there were more than 500 people, all chained together. At that moment I knew that if God was not with us, we would not make it out. We endured 18 days of hardship, torment, hunger, fear and anxiety. Each morning I called my siblings together to pray, I told them not to denounce God or lose faith, but they should hold on to God. Everything would be okay. After a week, the kidnappers asked for our parents’ contact numbers, they called and demanded 100 million naira (approx. 243 000USD) or they would kill us.”

Damaris could hear her parents crying over the phone. “They don’t have that kind of money. They begged them to please spare our lives. Eventually the men said they would accept 2 million naira (approx. 4 800USD), two big bikes, and airtime to the value of 200 000 naira. They reminded my parents that they would not hesitate to kill us if they didn’t receive these things. I could hear my mom crying ‘God have mercy on us’ as they ended the call.”

At home, Pastor Steven and Ruth were distraught. They kept praying for a miracle. “There is nothing more valuable and precious than my daughters, I would lay down my life for them,” he said. This time around, his life was not what they wanted. To meet the militant’s demands, they sold their farm, and anything of value they owned.

"I asked God to take my life."

“The day of our release finally came. My dad delivered the money and goods at a meeting place and the men came back to the camp to fetch us. We were hungry and weak, but the thought of being free and reunited with our parents gave us strength. We kept thanking God as we were walking through the forest.”

Damaris and her sisters grew hopeful, but the militants were not done with them yet. “Four young guys that were escorting us out said we should take a bath at the nearby stream… We said no, we would wash when we got home. They pointed their guns at our heads and said if we don’t, they would kill us. We were scared and went to the stream. Afterwards the men selected my sister, Faith and I, and ordered us to follow them. I began to tremble with fear, their guns were still held to our heads. Our sisters began crying.”

The men raped Damaris and Faith multiple times. “This was the worst experience I have ever been through,” Faith said. “At this point I asked God to take my life. The pain and humiliation were too much.”

The girls finally reached their home and were reunited with their parents. “We cried together and sang songs of praise to God. When we shared our experience with our parents they just wept.”

Trauma Care and Healing

The Shalom Trauma Centre heard what happened to Pastor Steven’s daughters and invited the whole family to spend a week there. Though Damaris and Faith received the brunt of these violent attacks, the whole family suffered alongside them. 

“When we got to the gate, my mom refused to enter. Seeing the rocky surroundings of the centre triggered bad memories. It reminded her of the day we were taken. When we finally entered the centre, the environment was so serene. I forgot about what we had been through,” said Faith.

The family spent the week attending sessions specifically designed to help survivors process trauma. Through these workshops and by God’s grace the family found healing and acceptance. “We wrote down all our fears and pain, we then took it to the cross, and placed it at Jesus’ feet. During the ceremony, I felt all my pain taken away, especially when they burnt the papers and I saw it turn to ash.”

 

Steven, Ruth, and their daughters. The two oldest daughters in particular experienced grevious harm and were able to find trauma care in Nigeria at the Shalom Centre.

Because healing is not always a linear process, the trauma centre invited the family back for another week. “It was in this week that I discovered my identity in Christ,” admits Faith, on whom the double assault left deep emotional wounds.

During one session each family member was asked to draw a self-portrait exactly as they saw themselves. We noticed Faith was crying and asked if we could talk. She opened up: “Since I was raped twice, self-hate and shame grew inside me. I felt dirty and unworthy, but now I know that despite what happened, God still sees me as a beautiful young woman. I’m fearfully and wonderfully made in His image.” A big smile replaced the tears on Faith’s face as she said: “I have more confidence now and I’m ready to go and face the world with my head held high, because I am valued by God. Indeed, this centre is a place of restoration where I have finally found my peace.”

The family is determined to live victoriously despite the terrible experience. “My biggest fear when my daughters were kidnapped was that they would not return alive, but God brought them back. Even though Damaris and Faith were raped, I told myself, where there is life there is hope. And yes, our hope has increased coming here. God is truly present here, all our burdens, shame, tears and fears were lifted at the trauma centre.”

Prayer

  • Thank God for the David family and the testimony of His faithfulness he has brough out of their trauma and pain.
  • Please pray for Pastor Steven and his family. Pray that God will continue to bring healing to their hearts and minds. Pray that their testimony of God’s restorative power will help many others like them to turn to God for healing
  • Pray for the Shalom Trauma Centre. Pray that many Christians in Nigeria affected by violence and insecurity can come to the centre and find pace and healing. By God’s grace the centre is expanding to help many more Christians affected. Please pray for a successful expansion.
  • Pray also for our trauma care staff, may the Lord protect them and bless the work they are doing for His glory.
  • Pray that the evil and brokenness brought forth by Fulani militants will not have a lasting impact on Christians, especially young women who are raped. Continue to also pray for these persecutors and that God will make them to turn away from this violence and find faith in Him.
“There are hundreds of young girls in the past year that have been kidnapped and brutally raped by Fulani militants. In this new and horrifying trend in Nigeria, both young and older women, sometimes in the presence of their husbands, are raped...The situation calls for a great deal of prayer and grace.”
Balat*
Trauma Care Expert, Nigeria

* Names changed to protect identity

Interview: Rising Persecution in China

‘We need to expand and grow to meet the increased need." In this interview, Peony*, who oversees Open Doors' work in China, talks about changes in China over the past year that affect Christians.

China has become much harder on Christians in the last few years. Can you remind us why you think that is? 

As China’s economic prowess and influence has grown, so has Chinese nationalism. President Xi Jinping prefers a new socio-economic model over what he sees as ‘failing’ western, democratic economies. To prove his point, he requires social stability and singleness of political persuasion. Citizens must ‘be directed’ rather than allowed freedom of speech or other belief systems. Now, maybe more than ever before in history, China sees an opportunity for ascendency on the world stage… but unification at home is a non-negotiable in this autocratic style of governance.

Religion is seen as a potential de-stabilizer and certainly not aligned with socialist ideology. It is as if Xi Jinping believes the time has come to rein in and restructure or realign religions, particularly Islam and Christianity, hence the recent determination to enforce restrictions on the Church.

More recently, Xi has pushed hard to project the impression that people love the Communist Party more than any other personality, group, or school of thought. This includes popular billionaires, film stars, reporters, pop groups, social media icons etc, and of course Jesus and the church.

 

How has the situation for Christians in China changed since last year?

Since 2020 we have seen tighter control and monitoring due to covid and the 100th Anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party, which occurred in 2021. An increasing number of churches are being warned by the authorities to ‘do as they are told’ by the government.

Several church leaders who are high profile and who aggressively implement church growth and ministry were targeted. Some others received subtle warning signals from the local authorities via short detentions. Some were interrogated and warned sternly to scale down their ministry activities. More and more churches were forced to quit their regular meeting venues leading to many breaking their congregation into small group gatherings hosted by individuals in their own homes.

Online Sunday services and training meetings flourished under the pandemic but have since been monitored and now experience tight internet control. House church meetings have prevailed online if the number of participants doesn’t exceed a few dozen. State churches however have been told they cannot hold services online.

In addition, Christian websites and social media accounts with high-volume traffic were blocked or closed.

Since last year, have many churches been forced to shut down or meet in smaller groups?

Most house church gatherings in commercial buildings have been told to shut down and have become invisible. They now meet in homes. We estimate about 80 per cent of churches have been pressured into meeting in smaller groups.

Some churches continue to meet using internet platforms they established during the pandemic. However, they find it less effective when it comes to pastoral care and spiritual growth.

Government-sanctioned (Three Self Patriotic Movement) State churches must follow the instructions and safety measures introduced to control the virus in public venues. This means most congregations in these (TSPM) churches have downsized to about a third of their original capacity. Anyone who does want to attend one of these services must first register online.   

In some jurisdictions, TSPM churches in neighbouring localities have been forced to merge into one congregation, making it easier for authorities to monitor church activities and control church growth.

Have many Christians been imprisoned in China in the last year?

Our local sources estimate between 10-20 Christians were imprisoned in the last 12 months.

Eight Christians that we know of were sentenced for ‘running an illegal business’. Five of them were selling audio Bible players and received prison sentences of between 15 months and 6 years. Three were sentenced for publishing or selling illegal Christian publications. A few others were targeted for their high-profile church ministries. Some of these were ethnic minority Christians.    

What is the current situation for children and youth?  

For many years the Chinese government has tried to ban children under 18 from attending church in order to stem the tide of young Christians growing up as passionate believers. In theory, children’s church (Sunday School), youth groups and youth camps were forbidden, but both the State-sanctioned churches and the (often unregistered) house churches found ways to run Sunday school for the very young, and youth camps for school age children. But this is very difficult now.

Since February 2018 Christian kindergartens have been closed, summer camps have been banned, and quite a few churches have been forced to place formal signs at the entrance forbidding children under 18 to enter.

Student ministry in schools and on university campuses is also banned. TSPM church activities are monitored to ensure there are no activities for children and teenagers under 18 years of age. While some churches continue to hold activities for the youth, they are always covert, and the scale of youthwork is becoming progressively smaller. Restrictive government regulations and the many distractions pulling young people away from seeking true spiritual growth means churches have so far failed to develop creative, impactful youth ministries.

The tremendous pressure of academic study and homework is stifling the young generation, leaving them very little time to spend with God and in church activities.

In some cases, schools pressure students not to attend religious activities and some teachers dissuade students from registering their religious affiliation as ‘Christian’ at school to avoid pressure from their superiors in the Communist Party.

How is the church responding to these growing challenges? 

We have seen a range of responses to the recent enforcement of religious regulations, from defiance of government regulations to the belief that God will open new doors even if one is closed.

A certain church that was closed in Western China, so the believers chose to take their meetings to the streets, meeting in local parks, singing, preaching and handing out tracts. However, this was met with a swift crackdown so the church no longer enjoys any freedom. Local churches dare not cross the line now.

In other areas believers have chosen to downsize and meet in numerous smaller groups.  

Most churches feel it is time to take extra precautions, to downsize or maybe relocate some of their ministries. For millions of churches across the country at this stage however, many have gone low-profile – back to believers’ houses for church meetings or down-sizing in rental apartments – with extra care and vigilance. 

Has the work of Open Doors in China changed or grown since last year?

The work of Open Doors in China has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic despite increasing persecution and travel restrictions. In particular, our small-scale training and presence ministry to believers from Muslim backgrounds and believers from Buddhist backgrounds, the most persecuted believers in China, has stayed on track besides the occasional pause due to travel restrictions.

Where longer term travel restrictions or lockdowns occurred, we experimented with online training instead of meeting face-to-face.

In order to prepare Chinese Christians for more persecution and train them in how to disciple the next generation, more time is now invested in developing contextualized materials that focus on persecution preparedness and youth training.

We have also increased efforts to strengthen our team that works on the ground with local churches.

What has been the biggest challenge for the church in China in the last year?

One problem for many house churches is that discipleship and leadership development has been neglected, leaving one or two pastors to do all the work. This is a timely challenge to the Chinese church to implement small group discipleship so they can release younger believers to share the load while meeting in small house churches. Old lecture-style training needs to be replaced by creative, interactive teaching styles that serve to attract and engage young inquiring minds. This is a new paradigm for older generation pastors.

Bible apps have gained country-wide popularity and are still accessible, though closure of some Bible apps and on online platforms has been occurring as well.

Surprisingly, many believers in their 30s or younger had never experienced severe persecution, so facing this new wave of persecution is a huge challenge for them.

Another big challenge is that we may lose the connection with the younger generation. Christians are not allowed to disciple children and youth and the world they grow up in is focused on social media, status, money and possessions.   

State-sanctioned TSPM Churches now must issue permits to their leaders and they are ‘guided’ by the government in terms of how to elect elders and leaders, and allowable preaching content. They must follow all government guidelines pertaining to religious affairs.

What has been the biggest challenge for the Open Doors China team in the last year?

While online training opportunities have emerged due to the pandemic and have become a growing trend, the various platforms are still very limited when it comes to training church leaders and contacting our local partners. We have to be very wise in what language we use online as the risk of being monitored is high.

While the COVID-19 pandemic has subsided somewhat, occasional lockdowns in some areas have restricted our interaction with local churches and partners.

We need to expand and grow our local team to meet the increased need.

Is there something that your team has achieved or worked on this year that you are especially proud of?

In spite of how difficult it is to serve them, our team has continued to visit believers from Muslim backgrounds and believers from Buddhist backgrounds in very difficult situations to encourage them and develop strong connections.

Our partners have been translating the Bible into an ethnic minority language spoken by a Buddhist majority group. While the New Testament was finished some time ago, this year excellent progress was made on the Old Testament. We praise the Lord that the Old Testament translation is now entering its final stage.

Besides this, we also equip Han Chinese workers to serve and disciple Christians in ethnic minority groups.

We are excited that some Han church workers continue to serve believers from Buddhist backgrounds in these ethnic minority areas.

Despite travel restrictions introduced around the pandemic, our team has made good progress on three areas of materials development:

  • A contextualized ‘Standing Strong Through the Storm’ (persecution preparedness) devotional
  • Contextualized materials to train churches in how to prepare for persecution
  • Next generation youth leadership training materials.

Some of our church contacts, who attended our persecution preparation training not only teach their own congregations, but also shared this biblical view of persecution with other church networks in the region, helping them all to prepare for persecution.

A few of the Chinese churches we have been connected with for a long time have taken the initiative to donate finances to support Christians in other countries who are still suffering under the covid-19 pandemic. These are the first steps for Chinese churches to identify with the persecuted church and demonstrate this practically.

What are your hopes for China for 2022?

One priority is to strengthen the size and capacity of our local team.

We want the contextualized devotional materials we are developing based on Standing Strong Through the Storm (Open Doors’ persecution preparedness training) to be shared far and wide and become a huge blessing to many Christians who are facing increased persecution. We also plan to develop Bible Study materials about persecution preparation. 

Due to the government’s determination to prevent the next generation from being reached for the gospel, we have allocated time and resources to address the issue of youth ministry. This is a crucial time for China’s youth and providing training and developing materials that outline creative ways to deliver youth ministry is vital.

We will continue to train Han church leaders and stir in them a passion to serve the persecuted church, beginning with believers from Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds within China’s borders, and then praying for and supporting overseas churches that are experiencing severe persecution and hardship.

We continue to train, encourage and support ethnic minority church leaders from Muslim and Buddhist backgrounds primarily in the area of discipleship of other believers who are caught within this unique Chinese environment of persecution. 

Is there anything that you are worried about as you look ahead to 2022?

The threat of losing the next generation to the world is very real. Persecution aims to tear young people from the Christian community, while enormous academic pressure and competition to enter a better school hijacks nearly every waking moment. On top of these challenges is a new obsession with social media and materialism. All of these are having a huge impact on China’s youth.

Is there anything that Open Doors China is planning for 2022 that you can tell us about?

Owing to the assault on China’s youth from the government, education and the media, we will focus much more attention on youth ministry.

As China’s house churches downsize to avoid new waves of persecution, we will continue to provide discipleship training for new and emerging house church leaders.

We aim to increase efforts to engage with and strengthen the most persecuted minorities in China, the Muslim and Buddhist background believers.

We believe it is vital to mobilize Chinese churches to serve persecuted Muslim background believers and Buddhist background believers in China. We plan to increase our emphasis on Chinese churches praying for and supporting persecuted churches in the wider body of Christ.

Do you think the winter Olympics in Beijing will have much of an impact on Christians or the level of persecution they are facing?

Increased monitoring is expected, especially to prevent any interaction or connection between Chinese Christians and people from overseas.

How can Christians around the world be praying for China, for the church in China, and for the work of Open Doors at this time?

  • Please pray that Chinese Churches would stand strong during times of persecution, and for wisdom in how to deal with government officials.
  • Pray that many new house church leaders would be equipped to carry the Chinese church through this difficult season. Pray that the church would be unified and grow stronger and multiply despite being divided into smaller groups.
  • Ask God to help the church, youth ministry workers and Christian parents to find free time and strategies to connect with, teach and disciple the next generation. Pray they would become solid in their faith, passionate followers of Jesus, and always choose to follow Jesus rather than give in to worldly desires and pressure.
  • Ask God to protect and anoint our contextualized devotional materials that we plan to distribute across China. Pray that they will become a life-changing blessing and encouragement to millions of Christians who are facing increased persecution.
  • Finally, please pray that our team is strengthened and that our capacity and effective reach is increased.

*Names changed for security reasons.

Prisoners in North Korea

In the secretive nation of North Korea, it’s hard to know exactly how many people are imprisoned. A 2014 report by the UN estimated that there were between 80,000 and 120,000 political prisoners being held in labour camps in North Korea, though there could be up to 200,000. Open Doors estimates that among these, there are between 50,000 and 70,000 Christians, imprisoned for daring to believe that Jesus is a higher authority than the nation’s leader, Kim Jong-un.

It can be hard to picture such a vast number of people or imagine what their lives must be like – but Hebrews 13:3 encourages us to ‘remember those in prison as if you were together with them’. There are a few prisoners in North Korea who we can pray for by name – we know their names because they actually come from outside of North Korea. And the stories of those who have escaped can help us imagine what life is like for the thousands of others who are in prison today, and stand with them in prayer.

Prisons in North Korea

There are three kinds of prison in North Korea:

Detention centres. This is where most prisoners are first sent after being arrested. Prisoners are interrogated and tortured. Hannah* remembers her time in one of these centres: “They’d beat us so harshly. When there was no interrogation, we had to kneel in our cells from 5am to 12pm and not speak. We didn’t receive any food or water and were not able to sleep.” 

Re-education camps. This is where prisoners are usually sent if they are not considered to be political prisoners. Conditions are poor, but prisoners will usually be sent to a camp close to where they are from, so their families can bring them food and clothes. The prisoners will be put to work in the day, and then forced to attend ‘re-education’ classes at night, learning about the Juche ideology and the teachings of Kim Il-sung. The work is exhausting and can be dangerous – if they are sent to work in a mine, for example, they may not survive. But the prisoners here are sentenced to a certain number of years in the camp, and if they survive, they will be allowed to leave, as they have been suitably ‘re-educated’.

Hea Woo* was sent to a camp like this. She recalls the daily routine:

5.am: Wake up.

5.30am: Roll call in the barracks. “We lined up with our heads bowed until we were all accounted for. Then there was some time to wash ourselves.”

6.am: Breakfast. “We queued up again and slowly moved through the barracks where the food was distributed. This took a lot of time. We got only a small cup full of rice. Maybe about two or three spoons in total.”

8am: “March to outside the camp, to the countryside, where we had to do agricultural work.  Until lunch time there was no break. Prisoners have no right to rest.”

12 noon: “To the camp, lunch, walk back to the fields. About the same amount of food as during breakfast and dinner.”

2pm: Back to work.

6pm: Walk back to the camp for a criticism session. “We had to criticize each other and ourselves about the things that we did wrong that day. After that: dinner.”

8pm: Ideological training. “The hardest part of the day. We were hungry and weary. Our eyes fell closed. But we had to stay awake and pay attention or we would be punished.”

9.30pm: Counting of the prisoners.

10pm: Go to bed.

“Every day was like torture. People were dying and their corpses were burnt. The guards scattered the ashes over the road. We walked that road every day and each time I thought: one day the other prisoners will walk over me.” Thankfully, her premonition did not come true, and she was eventually able to escape from the prison, and from North Korea.

Political labour camps. These are reserved for those who have committed the most ‘serious’ crimes and are considered enemies of the state. This includes Christians, and anyone else who dares to question the authority of the ruling Kim family. There are no re-education classes here – these people are considered too far gone to re-educate. There is no escape from these camps. Prisoners are worked to the bone – when they can no longer work, they are executed. These prisoners are also sometimes used in experiments.

For reasons you can imagine, we have no stories of prisoners from these camps.

Western Prisoners

Not everyone who is imprisoned in North Korea sees the worst of the North Korean prison system. Western prisoners – usually visiting Americans, Canadians, and Australians who have been accused of espionage, state subversion, or anti-state activities – are seen as bargaining chips who will eventually be returned to their home countries. North Korea doesn’t want them to be able to report the true extent of the human rights abuses taking place, and so they usually get off more lightly, and are held in prisons that are specifically for foreigners.

But foreign prisoners can still be treated harshly. American college student Otto Frederick Warmbier is a recent example of a Western prisoner who met with tragedy. In December 2015, he travelled to North Korea as part of a tour group. He was arrested for stealing a propaganda poster from his hotel room and sentenced to 15 years in prison. But in June 2017 he was returned to America in a vegetative state and died soon afterwards. It is unclear what happened to him in North Korea that led to his death.

Others have experienced much more lenient treatment. Alek Sigley, an Australian student who was studying in Pyongyang, was arrested for spying, but spent just nine days in detention. He described being forced to admit his guilt and write apologies, but said he was not physically mistreated.

Most Western prisoners experience something less extreme than Otto Warmbier’s fate, but harsher than Alek Sigley’s treatment. Lim Hyeon-soon, a Canadian-South Korean missionary who had visited North Korea over 100 times to carry out humanitarian work, was arrested in January 2015, accused of attempting to overthrow the country’s regime. He was held for 920 days and forced to do hard labour, including breaking up frozen coal and digging holes in the frozen ground in winter – but he was allowed to read the Bible.

Another well-known example is Kenneth Bae, an American-Korean, who was leading a tour of North Korea as part of his travel business in 2012. A hard drive was discovered in his luggage that revealed that he was a missionary, and he was arrested. He describes being interrogated from 8am until 10pm every day for the first few weeks of his imprisonment, but was never beaten. “I worked from 8am to 6pm at night, working on the fields, carrying rocks, shovelling coal,” he says. However, he was allowed to read his Bible and have contact with his family. He was released after two years.

In general, the treatment of Western prisoners is much more humane in comparison with the treatment of regular North Korean prisoners, if still harsh by Western standards.

 

South Korean Prisoners

Not all foreign prisoners are treated the same. North Korea considers itself the only legitimate government of Korea, and sees South Koreans as its own citizens. If someone with South Korean citizenship is arrested, they are very rarely released.

There are six South Korean prisoners currently being held in North Korea that we know of:

  • Kim Jong-Wook, a Baptist missionary who ran underground churches and shelters for North Koreans in China, and also helped North Koreans get to South Korea. According to a friend in Seoul, he went into North Korea looking for information about a group of North Korean women who had been taken back to North Korea from China, and to learn about the food shortages. He was arrested in 2013 and sentenced to a life of hard labour in 2014, accused of spying and ‘malignantly hurting the dignity’ of the ruling Kim family. Mid-2020 reports emerged that Kim Jong-Wook’s health situation has deteriorated because of hard work, malnutrition and possibly torture. 
  • Kim Kook-Kie, a Christian missionary who ran a shelter in China for North Korean defectors, and Choi Chun-Kil, another Christian missionary, were both arrested in Dandong, a border city between China and North Korea. They were accused of ‘conducting religious propaganda’ against North Korea and sentenced to a life of hard labour in 2015. Mid-2020 reports emerged that Kim Kook Kie’s health situation has deteriorated because of hard work, malnutrition and possibly torture. 
  • Ko Hyon-Chol, a North Korean defector who had gained South Korean citizenship and become a missionary, was accused of plotting to kidnap North Korean children who would be sold for adoption in other countries. He was sentenced to a life of hard labour in 2016. 
  • Kim Won-Ho, another North Korean defector who had become a South Korean citizen and a missionary, was abducted in China in March 2016.
  • Ham Jin-Woo, also a North Korean defector with South Korean citizenship, was a journalist for the website Daily NK, which specialises in news on North Korea. He was gathering information in China close to the border with North Korea when he was abducted and taken back to North Korea.

While these prisoners have been accused of various crimes, the true reason for their arrest (and sometimes abduction from China) is likely to be that they were known to be helping North Korean defectors. They may have been taken in the hopes of getting information out of them about their networks, or as a warning to others.

It is hard to know exactly how these prisoners might be treated. Given that they are unlikely to ever leave North Korea, they may face the same horrific treatments that imprisoned North Koreans face, including torture, labour camps, and possible execution. On the other hand, they may have knowledge that North Korea would wish to make use of when training their spies. If they are willing to cooperate with the North Korean authorities, they may be treated less harshly.

Chinese Prisoners

It’s much less known that North Korea also holds a number of Chinese Korean and Han Chinese prisoners as well. (Chinese Koreans are Koreans who have a Chinese passport, they form a large minority mainly in North East China, close to the North Korean border. Han Chinese form the majority of Chinese people.)

These are often Christians who secretly worked with North Korean refugees in China and were targeted by North Korean spies. After their abduction they are usually sentenced to 15 years hard labour.

There are hundreds of spies in the border region. In April 2016, a Chinese Korean pastor named Han was murdered in the town Changbai. Secret agents lured him in a trap and stabbed him to death. More common is that North Korea kidnaps Christian evangelists and missionaries, even if they have the Chinese nationality.

“I was held for several months”, one Chinese Korean Christian told Open Doors. “The State Security officers wanted to know about my network in North Korea. They didn’t beat me, but they forced me to stand for four days without allowing me to sit or lie down. I was desperate, but suddenly I heard a song in my heart and the Holy Spirit gave me strength. I wasn’t allowed to sing or hum, but I rocked back and forth on my toes. The guards looked at me on a CCTV camera and were amazed that I could stand for so long and stay in good spirits.”

Eventually, the Christian worker was released. “The agents called my family and demanded money. My family members raised a lot of funds and my parents took out a mortgage on their house. They paid tens of thousands of dollars to secure my release, after three months imprisonment.”

Not all Chinese Korean prisoners will see their family again. Many have gone missing to this day. Will they be released after 15 years? Maybe…

Pray

When those from outside North Korea are arrested, we sometimes know their names. This means we can pray for them by name.

But there are tens of thousands – perhaps of hundreds of thousands – more North Korean people who are imprisoned in the most horrific conditions, including at least 50,000 of our brothers and sisters. We don’t know their names – but God does. And we can pray for them and ask God to be with them, and to bring them justice.

Please pray:

  • Pray for the six South Korean prisoners, and the thousands and thousands of North Korean prisoners as well as the small number of Chinese prisoners. Ask God to give them strength and comfort.
  • Pray for our imprisoned brothers and sisters. Pray that somehow, even in the darkest places on earth, they would know God’s love and presence with them. Pray that God would shine as a light through them.
  • Pray for the international efforts to negotiate between Pyongyang and Seoul, and that the South Korean prisoners would be able to go back to their families soon.
  • Pray that God would bring change to North Korea, and that one day soon the people of the nation will have freedom and justice.
  • Pray for protection for those working with Korean defectors in China. Ask God to give them wisdom, and to blind the eyes of those who might seek to find them.

Interview with a North Korean refugee worker

Open Doors field worker Rebecca (not her real name) works with North Korean refugee women in China. All of them fell into the traps of human traffickers, who sell these women to brothels and Chinese men. China’s one child policy has led to a shortage of women and the poorest men often cannot find a bride – so they buy one. Often, these North Korean women are abused. Rebecca and field workers like her provide these women with pastoral care, Bible study and a little money so they can survive. This ministry is not without danger, but Rebecca is joyful. She planted, and the Lord has grown.

Rebecca was recently married and is now pregnant. Another field worker has taken over her role in the Chinese-North Korean border area. While we will miss her dedication on the field, it does provide her with an opportunity to be a little more open about her work.

Rebecca, what did your ministry with these North Korean ladies look like?

I worshiped God with them, studied the Word with them, and I provided them with what they needed. Those were the main projects. The meetings were mostly twice a month. I tried to teach them the Word itself. I lectured them from the Book of Genesis, step by step.

How do these women usually respond to God’s Word?

When the sisters first hear about the Word of God, they laugh at it, and they respond as if it were nonsense. But as they get to listen more and more to the verses and sermons, they become serious about the message. It was very difficult to teach them the message of the Word because in their minds, there are a mixture of ideas that they learned from their homeland which are against the teachings of Jesus, and that was why the sisters themselves said that the Word doesn’t come right into their hearts. They really want to believe it, but the messages from the Bible were so different from what they had learned so far, so it takes time for them to actually accept the Truth.

Rather than sitting there and persuading them with what I said, I let them accept that it takes time for them to change their thoughts. And when I did not stop teaching them biblical messages, one day they realized the Truth themselves, and their lives gradually changed.

What are some of the challenges you’ve encountered while working on the mission field?

The most difficult thing was to adjust to the field situation. As the sisters do not have any legal papers, they are illegal refugees from North Korea. Meeting those people itself is quite dangerous for me. Plus, our work is not very favorable to the Chinese government of the field area, so I needed to avoid all the possibilities that might put the ministry in danger, such as surveillance, and still meet the sisters. That was the most tricky and difficult part.

My mission was to take care of the North Korean sisters. The sisters endure such poor lives; some of them were manipulated during the process of coming out of their country, and many were trafficked into the Chinese families.

Those who are married to Chinese men stay as illegal immigrants. I would go to these women, tell them about God, and we would worship together, and study the Bible together. The sisters’ lives are truly difficult and harsh. They should be welcomed as a new family member but many of them are not. Instead, they are just treated as a means to deliver babies. Without legal identification, they cannot travel freely within China. They cannot do what they want. They are confined in the situation. As God allowed me to find the sisters in such situations, I would go and meet them; we worshiped God together, and I would teach them about the Word.

One sister I remember the most. Her husband was too old to support the family. She still needed to take care of their child, so she herself worked to make a living for the family. In such a desperate situation, she decided to go to South Korea. Another reason for going to South Korea was that she needed to earn a lot of money to bring another child of hers from North Korea, which costs a lot to pay the brokers.

She left the Chinese husband but was caught by the Chinese police. We lost contact. Having been caught by the Chinese police, there is always a great possibility that she might be sent back to North Korea. We were very much worried about her and we prayed a lot for her.

Thankfully, all the sisters in the Bible study group who prayed for her experienced relief when they prayed for her, and me as well. We felt peace in our hearts whenever we prayed. It was like God told us she would be released. That was the answer to our prayers.

We were able to contact the police and they said that we didn’t need to worry. But the situation lasted for months without us being able to contact her. Eventually, God released her from the police and let her return to her family. Although she was not able to achieve what she had planned, she returned to her family, and she’s doing well now.

Were there more difficult moments?

There were quite a lot of difficult moments, especially when I needed to go to faraway places to meet those sisters. They live far away from where I live. [To travel to them safely], I needed to avoid using my identification card. That’s why I tried not to use buses or trains when traveling to the ministry areas, because passengers get checked all the time. I often used illegal cars to travel.

I know God protected me. There were a lot of times when I needed to travel alone. Those were such insecure moments, but all the time, God prepared the way for me. You know, the journeys to the areas were new every time. I had to get new transportation every time I went there.

Every time, I was able to get the means to travel, and there was not one accident or incident,

so I confess this was God’s amazing grace. Also, I was never caught by the Chinese police and was able to continue visiting the sisters. This proves that God protects the ministry.

How did it feel to begin this ministry?

I was very worried, and it was not so easy. At first, I didn’t have a clear picture of what the sisters would be like. I just thought very vaguely that they have experienced something harsh and difficult, and that they are different from me. But now, I say that they are just as much human beings as I am, and I just want to say that… they are so lovable.

Surely, I feel pity for them, but they are so lovely. They are God’s people, and just feeling pity for them is not enough. God looks for them, builds them, that’s who they are.

Has God given any fruit to your ministry?

 The Chinese family members are often afraid that the North Korean wives will just run off. That’s one reason why they treat them badly. The North Korean ladies don’t behave well either. But oftentimes, the Chinese family members of the sisters say, ‘You have changed since you’ve been to the church.’

And during the worship services within the Bible study group, the sisters begin to sincerely pray for their families and their redemption. They started to ask for God’s heart when praying for their families. When I see those transformations, I feel so happy and proud of them.

[Sometimes] we help those underground believers [in North Korea] who are the sisters’ relatives, through our network in China. We receive their letters and news that they received the funds safely and they live on those funds to worship God. I feel very happy when I hear this news.

How do you pray for these North Korean women?

Firstly, I pray that the fruits of the Holy Spirit will be abundant among the sisters, so that they will first see God’s glory and shine His glory right where they are. For example, some of them are housewives. I pray that they will be able to shine God’s glory to their families at home. Also to the neighbors and the people around them, I pray that the sisters will be able to show God’s beautiful character and love right where they are.

Moreover, I pray that beyond this confusing season, where we are not sure of what will happen between North and South Korea, and also China, I pray that the sisters will be prepared for the united Korea, and serve as powerful disciples of God when the time comes. That is my prayer point for the sisters.

What are some things you’ve said to the North Korean women?

I say things like:

“God is always with you.”

“He’s on your side. So cheer up.”

“Even when it’s pitch dark and you feel like you are all by yourself, Jesus Christ is holding your hand. Please don’t forget this Truth.”

“Please don’t think that you will just suffer and die like this.”

“Surely, God has his own plans for your life. Please remember this. Please remember this wherever you go, whatever you do.”

“Please remind yourself of God’s dream towards your life.”

This is my message for the sisters.

Which sister do you miss the most?

 The sister I really miss is, ironically, the sister that I was the most suspicious about. My guess is that she was actually trained as a spy. This is just my speculation, but she acted suspiciously and she sometimes lied about her faith. But from one moment, she wasn’t that distant anymore. She engaged with us in the meetings and helped us with things. And slowly, she began to show who she really was. But she seemed to have cycles. Sometimes she was distant, sometimes she was close. One time she sounded like she truly believed in Jesus, but at other times she didn’t. Then I saw that she still had the faith in her. I wonder how she encounters God these days. I miss her a lot.

 Are there also things you regret?

At first, when the sisters were talking about the hard things they were going through, I tried to discipline them with what I thought was right, but this may have rather given them even another hard time.

One of the sisters, now in South Korea, when she was complaining to me about her mom’s death, she kept letting herself stay within depressing feelings and self-pity. I always told her to get out of these dark emotions, get up and live as a Jesus follower, but now I think that I had to comfort and care for her feelings more than just disciplining them with what I thought was right. That’s the point I want to redo.

Do you have more examples of transformation?

At first, the sisters only talked to me about their own problems. They didn’t listen to others.

They were jealous of what the other person had and hated one another. They had a lot of conflicts and fights among them. But as time went by, the sisters changed, and they now know how to listen to others, how to comfort others and how to encourage others. This is the moment that I realized that Jesus really touched their hearts and taught them how to love.

Also, at first, the sisters were just into the sad, self-pitying feelings, but as time went by, as they encountered the Word of God more and more, they started to really pray for their own country. They prayed that churches will be built in the land and that North Korea will accept the gospel of Jesus Christ.

When I saw those transformations, I was very happy for the sisters. The Word of God surely changes the women in His good ways. Many women cheat on their husbands, many get into gambling, they do lots of bad things. Some women steal things, and some make money by prostitution. Many women are involved in such sinful acts, more than one can imagine. But when they continue to listen to the Word of God, they first realize that such things are something to be ashamed of. They never knew. As they get to know more about Jesus, they try not to be involved in such things anymore.

At first, all they wanted was to receive. They came to the Bible study meetings to get the funds. They wanted to be supported. But then when they kept listening to the Word of God and learned about God’s love, they started to help other sisters, comforting and encouraging them, and started to love them. That’s the moment I thought, “Wow, they really have changed.” I thank God for such transformation.

“What is your faith worth?”

Would you give up your faith in Jesus for 70,000 dollars?

This was the choice facing Sister Hua* from China. She is a believer from a Buddhist ethnic group, and the local village chief said he would block her from receiving the government subsidies she was entitled to – equivalent to around US$70,000 over the next few years – if she didn’t give up her faith in Jesus.

She has two children, aged four and six. This money could have made a big difference to her family and her children’s futures – and this was money she was entitled to receive.

But Sister Hua has seen the power of God. When she was suffering from an illness, Christians had prayed for her, and she was completely healed. She refused to give up her faith – so the village chief stopped her from getting the money.

Life isn’t easy for Sister Hua and her family. They are able to survive through working their farm, but the subsidy would make their lives much easier. Despite this, she says, “I will follow Jesus Christ for the rest of my life, because He is the one and only true God.”

Would you give up your house or your income for your faith?

While there are many Han Chinese people who believe in Buddhism, there are also various ethnic minority groups in China who see Buddhism as an integral part of their identity and traditions. Most of China’s Buddhist ethnic groups live in the west and southwest of China, in remote, rural farming communities. Some live in the mountains, and they are so remote that they have to walk for a couple of days to meet with others. Each village has its own temple where the villagers burn joss sticks and pray to many different gods and idols. There are many ceremonies they must attend for different occasions.

When someone from one of these ethnic groups comes to faith in Jesus, as Sister Hua did, they face persecution from their own communities. These communities see Christians as traitors. They are also afraid that if someone stops attending Buddhist ceremonies, bad things will happen. If someone gets sick, an animal dies, or there is bad weather, it is blamed on the Christians.

One believer shared, “Curses have no impact on me, so I don’t need to fear anything if I don’t put Buddha’s picture up in my house.” But the new faith of the believers doesn’t change the superstitions of their neighbours.

Xiao Yun*, an Open Doors worker who supports believers from these Buddhist ethnic groups, remembers trying to visit one believing family from a Buddhist community who ran a fruit shop. “When the neighbours saw us enter the fruit shop, they ran in behind us yelling at the family and cursing us. They were very angry and determined to make us leave – in fact, they tried to stop anyone from buying from this family, not just us. They were so furious.”

Another family’s home was destroyed by their community and they were kicked out of their village. Xiao Yun says, “They had nowhere to go so they went to find the pastor for help. He took them in and gave them refuge for almost 12 months. They felt afraid and rejected by their own people.”

Since they couldn’t farm their land, they were completely reliant on their pastor for their survival. It was a difficult situation – and yet, the father of the family said, “Since I know the true God, I cannot give up on my faith.” After some negotiations with the local authorities, the family were eventually able to return to their village.

Would you give up your freedom for your faith?

Believers from the Buddhist ethnic groups also face persecution from the government, which discourages the practice of any religious belief.

Xiao Yun shares, “I know one pastor who used to go from village to village sharing the gospel. Government officials tried to stop him, however he continued. Finally, he was arrested and sent to prison for several years. He is still in prison.”

Because believers from Buddhist ethnic groups are persecuted by both their own communities and the government, they are some of the most persecuted believers in China. With such fierce opposition, its no surprise that they are small in number – Open Doors estimates that there are just 1,000 Christians from these Buddhist ethnic groups. And yet, many of these believers have chosen Jesus over money, houses, and even their own freedom.

"Thank you so much for coming into our lives"

Your support and prayers enable Open Doors workers to stand with our brothers and sisters from Buddhist communities in China as they face persecution. The main strategy of the Open Doors team is to raise up local believers to become leaders. Xiao Yun explains, “Because they have the same culture and usually they live in the same region, it is much easier for them to share the gospel and pastor the believers (from Buddhist ethnic groups).”

She shares about one leader, Brother Xiu Jie*, who really benefited from this support. When Open Doors first met this leader, he was leading two different groups of believers from Buddhist communities in two different areas. But after working with them for two years, most of the believers had fallen away from their new faith. “He was so tired and discouraged,” Xiao Yun says.

“We sent a trainer to walk with this leader and envision him to raise up co-workers to be leaders as well, so that he doesn’t need to travel between these two places all the time.

“Nowadays, he has raised up a couple of his co-workers to become leaders. Just last year one of his co-workers handled a summer camp by himself. Brother Xiu Jie was so proud and happy, saying, ‘I am no longer the only worker in my church. I raised up a leader and he is able to lead our church as well.’”

It means a lot to the believers to have Open Doors workers come and spend time with them. Brother Xiu Jie shared, “Thank you so much for coming into our lives, to help us, to encourage us, and to walk with us at such a perfect time. You pray for us and support us just as God sent you to do. Thank you so much.”

Open Doors has also been working on a project to provide audio Bibles to illiterate believers from Buddhist ethnic groups in their own dialects. The audio Bible in one dialect is due to be completed shortly, and another should be completed in 2021. Xiao Yun explains, “They can download this app and they can hear the Bible in their local dialects through their smart phone. They can hear the Word of God any time, any place. Please pray that these audio Bibles can be completed smoothly.”

We want to see the church strengthened

Brother Xiu Jie’s favourite verse is John 3:30 – “He must become greater, I must become less.” When asked why he likes this verse so much, he said, “Serving is not to prove how successful we are. It is very true in the mission field. We want to see the church of believers from Buddhist backgrounds strengthened. In Him our ministry will be remembered and we can be forgotten on this earth.”

Your support and prayers give believers from China’s Buddhist ethnic groups the strength to stand strong in their faith in the midst of many challenges. And even more than that – you are helping the dreams of believers like Brother Xiu Jie to see the church strengthened become a reality. Please continue to pray for them:

Prayer

  • Pray for the pastor in prison. Ask God to comfort him, and to comfort and provide for his family. Pray that he will be released soon.
  • Pray for the believers who have faced discrimination and attack by their families and communities. Pray that God will soften the hearts of their neighbours. Ask God to protect these believers and provide for their needs.
  • Praise God for the work Open Doors is doing to support Christian leaders from Buddhist ethnic groups. Pray that God will raise up many more leaders, and that they will be equipped to disciple other believers.
  • Pray for the successful completion of the audio Bibles in different dialects, and that it will be a huge source of encouragement for believers to hear the Word of God in their own language
  • Pray that the church in these Buddhist communities will grow.

Javier seeks justice in Mexico

There are four states in Mexico where Christians from rural indigenous communities face constant persecution – Chiapas, Oaxaca, Hidalgo, and Guerrero. Believers here face rejection, harassment, arrest, and even being kicked out of their homes completely, for choosing to leave the traditional faith of their indigenous group. But your prayers and support are helping Open Doors to fight for the rights of these believers, and show them that they are not alone or forgotten.

Javier is a Christian leader from an indigenous background in Mexico. His community follows a traditional faith that is a mixture of Catholicism and other traditional beliefs. But because Javier is an evangelical Christian, and no longer follows this traditional faith, he was kicked out of his home, along with three other Christian leaders and their families – a total of 33 people, including children.

Sadly, his story is not unusual. Mary*, part of the Open Doors team in Mexico, explains, “In the last six months, the violence endured by Christians at the hands of the majority has dramatically increased. In previous years, it would take six months for Christians to be expelled from their communities. The latest reports reveal that expulsions now are happening swiftly, with no time for anything.”

Javier was kicked out of his home town, Napite, in the state of Chiapas, in October 2019. He and the other believers found refuge in San Cristóbal de las Casas, at the home of a church leader, Pastor Octaviano, who has been giving them shelter and food.

The state authorities have been aware of this case from the moment the incident occurred. Patricia Mass Lazos, president of the Religious Affairs Committee, reported it to Chiapas State’s Assembly ten days after it happened, on October 29th 2019, saying that the expulsion was a violation of fundamental human rights, including the right to religious freedom.

But despite the visibility of this case, the dream of these families to go back to their home town is still far away. Indigenous communities in Mexico find it easy to get away with persecuting those who leave their traditional faiths, because they have a certain amount of autonomy from the central government and are allowed to follow their own customary laws in certain areas of life. According to their own laws, converting to a religion that is different from the traditional faith is forbidden. Those who become evangelical Christian are often imprisoned for not participating in traditional rituals and festivities.

Thanks to your prayers and support, Open Doors has been able to hire lawyers to fight for the rights of these believers. This can be a very long path, and it isn’t always fruitful, but it helps to show these believers that they are not alone, and that their global church family are willing to fight for them.

And when the aid that these families had been receiving from several Christian groups was coming to an end, your prayers and support helped the Open Doors team to step in. Open Doors has rented safe houses for the families to live in, and the team is working with them to set up a project that can help them earn an income.

But Javier and the other Christian families from his community have paid a high price for standing firm in their faith, and it’s not a choice all new believers find easy to make. Open Doors has found that more than 70 percent of Christians who suffer persecution in rural indigenous areas to the point of expulsion from their hometowns give up their faith for fear of losing their homes and other belongings.

Mary says, “This figure is alarming, and our task is to reverse it. We believe that if we teach Christians that persecution is part of the faithful Christian’s life and counterbalance the view of those who profess the theology of prosperity, then believers won’t be caught by surprise by it, and they would know which path to take.

“The persecuted indigenous Church in Mexico reveals to us something genuine: that a lack of preparation to confront religious persecution leads to too many losses. The most striking of them all is the loss of faith itself.”

Thank you for praying and giving to support believers like Javier, and to help prepare other believers to stand strong when they face this kind of persecution. They may have been rejected by one community, but your support helps to remind them that they are part of a global church family, and they are not forgotten.

Prayer

  • For the case being brought on behalf of Javier and the other Christian families expelled from Napite, that the right to religious freedom will be upheld and they will be allowed to return home
  • That the project to help Javier and the other Christian families earn an income will be a success
  • For other believers facing losing their homes and their communities because of their faith, that God will give them strength and courage and provide for their needs
  • For wisdom for the Open Doors team as they seek to strengthen believers and prepare them to stand strong in the face of persecution.

North Korea: Not by bread alone

The story of Bae

“Whenever I open my eyes in the morning, I have felt the presence of our Father.”

Each morning, Bae* wakes up and starts her day in a rustic shack in a rural village, somewhere in the mountains of North Korea. Her husband is groggy from the short night of sleep, and she can hear the rustling of the other people in her house, getting ready for another day in the fields.

She hopes she’ll meet her work quota picking crops. She doesn’t want to risk additional punishment, or the loss of her brief moments during the day when she can forage food.

She collects her food rations around 6 a.m., and trudges off to the fields. The government provides food for people like her—but just enough to keep them alive to work. She knows her breakfast won’t be enough to ease the gaping hunger in her belly. Like all the other people in her village, Bae is starving. She’s not hungry enough to die—at least, not yet. But the hunger is always there, gnawing at her bones like an untamable animal.

When Bae is able to take a short break, she heads for the woods. The mushrooms and plants she collects from the forest help stem the growling of her belly, but that extra food is never a sure thing.

Finally, at dusk, she finishes her day. She gets another meal—some watery soup and, if she’s lucky, some rice—and returns to her home.

And then Bae gets to her real work.

She waits for the moon to go behind the clouds, then silently pulls on her cloak. She slips out of the front door, careful to close it quietly so the neighbors don’t hear. As she makes her way through the village, she sticks to the shadows and steals back to the forest.

But this time, she isn’t foraging for food—what she’s after is even more important.

She finds the tree with the gnarled roots and scrapes away a thin layer of dirt. She pulls out the plastic bag and tucks it under her cloak, returning to her cabin as quietly as she left.

When she gets home, her housemates are waiting—they’ve already covered the windows with blankets and lit a small candle.

From the bag she dug up, she pulls out a book. She opens it and begins to read, in a voice barely above a whisper:

Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

It’s another day in a North Korean church.

Arrested for God's Word

Editor’s note: Bae is a real person in North Korea, but her story has been slightly changed to ensure she cannot be identified. Where changes or additions were made, they are based on other firsthand accounts of life in North Korea for Christians.

Bae has not always lived in this village. She moved here after she and her husband were caught with a Bible. As soon as North Korean authorities realized the couple were Christians, their lives as they knew them were over.

Faith in Jesus can be a death sentence in North Korea. Open Doors estimates there are around 400,000 Christians in North Korea—and they are all secret Christians. If they’re caught, they’re lucky to escape with their lives.

Bae and her husband were two of the “lucky” ones – alive, but sentenced to a lifetime of hardship and labor. 

They were put into the “hostile class” in North Korea, which meant they are on the lowest rung when it comes to government aid, work assignments or any other official assistance. The couple was taken to the remote village and told they had to do backbreaking agricultural labor. They know they’ll live in the village until they die.

Though it might seem like a light sentence to be placed in a rural village, it’s not—the region is more like a prison than a farm. People like Bae are watched and the roads in and out of these towns are monitored and guarded. Escape is a very dangerous prospect, and daily life becomes limited to the small area surrounding the villages.

Bae was able to escape one time. She made it over the border into China, where she was able to make contact with a safe house run by Open Doors partners. While there, she met with other Christians – a sweet experience of fellowship that would be impossible in North Korea.

The leaders of the safe house gave Bae food, medicine and a new Bible. She sang, prayed and read the Bible with her friends at the house, and she didn’t even have to be quiet.

While she was in China, she was offered the chance to stay there – to live a freer life outside of the tight control back home.

She refused.

She returned home with the food, medicine and Bible she’d gotten, and she shared them with her secret group of believers. These gifts will sustain the faith of these Christians for years. 

"The suffering is a blessing from our Father"

Recently, on another trip to China, Bae was able to get a letter to an Open Doors partner, thanking Open Doors and supporters like you for their prayers and gifts. We can’t tell you how she got it to us – doing so would put Bae in incredible danger. But it’s a powerful opportunity to hear from a Christian leader still inside North Korea. Here’s what she wrote – and some of it is meant for you:

 

Dear brother,

We are well and peaceful with Father’s grace and your concern.

We give thanks to the Father who is doing almighty works. I am so overwhelmed to write you this letter; we received the greatest love and concern which cannot be returned back. We live firmly in the suffering march, as always.

Whenever I open my eyes in the morning, I feel the presence of our Father.

Right now, we only receive materials from you—but we expect the day to come when we can return those back in God.

From the perspective of other people, our life of suffering must seem like a cursed life; however, this suffering is a blessing from our Father who allowed it in our life because it is a shortcut to the Father. He knows our suffering and listens to our prayers. We thank our Father who has done such great things to prepare life for us.

We, who receive His amazing grace, keenly realize and understand His words: “Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the Father.” That means any life that follows His words is blessed.

The thing I give thanks for the most is that Father God uses me to work as his servant. I desire to dedicate my life, until death, to glorify Him.

Brother, I have one request. Please send our gratitude and appreciation to those who sent these support materials to us. I bow to them with a thankful heart.

Let’s stay healthy and fight strongly for a gospelized North Korea.

Take care,

Bae, your sister in Christ

3 Ways to Support the Persecuted Church in 2022

New Years resolutions aren’t easy to keep.

How many of us have decided to work out every day, beginning on January 1, but fall out of habit by February? How about a new Bible reading plan that we fall behind on within a couple months? Planning out resolutions can feel intimidating, especially in such turbulent times as this.

Around the world, our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world have had their lives impacted not only by COVID, but by the ongoing presence of persecution and pressure. Going into 2022, the situation in many countries is volatile and increasingly dangerous. As Christians, we are called to stand together as the body of Christ, even in difficult times. When one part of the body suffers, we are told, the whole body suffers with it.

As we go into 2022, why not make a resolution to support the persecuted church? There’s many different ways to do so, but here’s three easy ways to strengthen your brothers in sisters in the upcoming year:

Learn

Learning about your persecuted family is the first step to supporting them! You’ve already begun this step by clicking on this blog post. This year, make a point of reading the World Watch List and finding out about where persecution is the hardest. Or encourage your church to access Open Doors Church Resources to collectively learn more about our brothers and sisters around the world!

Pray

This is the number one thing we encourage at Open Doors! Brother Andrew used to say that “Prayer goes where we cannot.” In places where religious freedom is restricted or following Jesus is illegal, our prayers can still strengthen the church. You can start today by downloading the Prayer Calendar. Every day you’ll find a new prayer request for your persecuted family, and you can make a point of praying for them throughout the whole year.

Act

Take a hands-on initiative to strengthen and support your persecuted brothers and sisters. You can send a letter or a post card to a believer and encourage them personally. Or why not look at these ways to hold your own fundraiser for the persecuted church and raise awareness among your community?

In 2022, make your resolution to stand with your brothers and sisters and support the persecuted church!

Last year, more than 8,000 Christians were held in captivity because of their faith. 

This month, you can join Open Doors in One With Them, a special time of praying for Christian captives worldwide.

Start by registering for the One With Them challenge, a week of focused prayer for Christain captives featuring daily challenges.

Register for the Challenge
Resources for churches

This Giving Tuesday, you can support struggling christians in NIgeria

Ongoing attacks have left hundreds dead and thousands displaced—many of them followers of Jesus.

Open Doors partners are working with local believers to help. Your gift today can help provide urgent aid to families who have lost everything in the attacks

A Giving Tuesday gift of $80 can provide vital emergency relief for a Christian family in Nigeria.

An emergency relief pack includes food, medicine, and clothes.

Give a Gift today

This Giving Tuesday, support struggling Christians in Nigeria

Ongoing attacks have left hundreds dead and thousands displaced—many of them followers of Jesus.

Open Doors partners are working with local believers to help. Your gift today can help provide urgent aid to families who have lost everything in the attacks

A Giving Tuesday gift of $80 can provide vital emergency relief for a Christian family in Nigeria.

An emergency relief pack includes food, medicine, and clothes.

Give a gift today

YOUR YEAR-END GIFT WILL BE MATCHED!

Persecution is growing, and so are the needs of persecuted believers. More Christians need Bibles, discipleship, trauma counselling, and relief aid as they face violence, displacement, and loss. 

Your support will empower persecuted believers through Bibles, training, relief aid, trauma counselling, and more. 

And thanks to a generous donor, your gift will be matched up to $120,000 so that every dollar has double the impact!

Give a Year-end gift

Your year-end gift will be matched!

Persecution is growing, and so are the needs of persecuted believers. More Christians need Bibles, discipleship, trauma counselling, and relief aid as they face violence, displacement, and loss. 

Your support will empower persecuted believers through Bibles, training, relief aid, trauma counselling, and more. 

And thanks to a generous donor, your gift will be matched up to $120,000 so that every dollar has double the impact!

Give a year-end gift