WASHINGTON (RNS)—As tourism to Jerusalem rebounded from the pandemic last year, more than 2 million visitors came to see the Old City of Jerusalem’s gleaming stone walls and the attraction known as “the City of David,” and the large stone structure, standing opposite the Temple Mount, said to be the remnants of King David’s palace.

But a paper published last month in Tel Aviv, journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University, gives further credence to growing suspicions that David’s headquarters was located elsewhere.

According to Nadav Na’aman, an Israeli archaeologist who’s been studying the region’s ancient history since the early 1960s, cuneiform tablets discovered in an area known as “the Ophel” at the base of the Mount suggest the royal palace and historical core of the city was likely there.

The compound known as the City of David is popular among Jewish and Christian tourists alike, drawing more than 400,000 people every year. The site includes the Gihon Spring, where, according to Christian legend, the Virgin Mary washed Jesus’ swaddling clothes. It also includes the Siloam Tunnel, built by the biblical king Hezekiah to supply the city with water while it was under siege by an Assyrian army in the eighth or seventh century B.C.

The iconic walls that ring today’s Old City are in fact of Ottoman construction, built by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent in the 16th century.

In the biblical era, and the Middle Bronze Age period before it, the city had a different footprint.

Though it still incorporated the Temple Mount, much of what is today the Armenian and Christian quarters was outside its walls, while the city spilled down to the south into the valley that today makes up the largely Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan.

There on a ridge is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 19th century, long identified as the core of the ancient city of Jerusalem.

It made a certain sense that David’s palace, the administrative and political center of the oldest iteration of the city, would stand opposite the Temple Mount, the center of the city’s religious hierarchy.

Scholars say evidence is far from conclusive

But many archaeologists long felt the evidence pointing to the City of David complex is far from conclusive. The question has become colloquially known as “the problem with Jerusalem” in the Israeli archaeological community.

“The ‘problem with Jerusalem’ is the location of its original ancient site,” Professor Israel Finkelstein, head of the School of Archaeology and Maritime Cultures at the University of Haifa, told Religion News Service.

Most puzzling is that the structures on the “City of David” ridge do not have the characteristics of an ancient mound, the type of settlement structure that made up the earliest cities in the area in the Middle Bronze Age.

The location of the tablets reported last month by Na’aman, believed to be royal correspondence, suggest they fell further north.

“The discovery of the two tablet fragments in the Ophel area has changed the balance of evidence. As observed above, the fragments indicate that the royal palace, from where they must have swept, was probably on the Temple Mount,” Na’aman argued in his paper.

In Na’aman’s thinking, the City of David would have been an outlying suburb in the early days of the city.

“This would account for the scanty architectural remains and the paucity of objects dated to the Late Bronze Age uncovered in the excavations conducted in the Southeastern Hill,” Na’aman wrote, referring to the City of David’s ridge.

“According to this logic, the centre of the city at the time was located on the Temple Mount, north of the Southeastern Hill, with the latter having been a peripheral, poorly inhabited area in its vicinity.”

The lack of significant structural remains between the City of David and the Temple Mount from the earliest days of Jerusalem, he concluded, suggests a city in two parts.

“The picture that emerges from the discussion is perplexing. On the one hand, the Temple Mount, where the royal palace and temple were located, was probably the economic and administrative centre of the city as early as the second millennium BCE,” Na’aman wrote. “On the other hand, the fortifications that encompassed the Southeastern Hill formed a separate urban entity, detached from the Temple Mount.”

Still, it may be a long time before the matter is resolved. Any digging on the Temple Mount itself has been strictly forbidden amid the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In the past, the suggestion of disturbing the site has been met with strong condemnations from Jewish and Muslim leaders alike.

“I can only speak about the current situation and the near future. I see no possibility to dig on the Temple Mount,” Finkelstein said.

BUDAPEST, Hungary (BP)—Michael Domke had spent nearly 15 years planting churches in Ukraine when Russia’s war forced him out.

Today, he typically drives 1,700 miles to several cities in Ukraine from Budapest, Hungary, continuing his work.

The Southern Baptist International Mission Board worker is learning to live one day at a time.

“It’s easy to say we live by faith until you’ve got to,” Domke said. “And we’ve had to realize to a greater degree what living by faith is day by day, not really knowing where we will be tomorrow or what tomorrow holds. Not just for me and my wife, but for my kids, just not really knowing anymore.

“It’s just hard to say that, and to admit that I just don’t know, and yet still trust God.”

Churches growing in Ukraine

But Domke, who evacuated from Kyiv, has continued to experience success planting churches in Ukraine, drawing unbelievers who’ve been taught to view Baptist churches as cults amid the Orthodox Christian congregations. Domke is one of the IMB’s two team leaders for church planting in Ukraine.

 “Some of the churches are growing incredibly. So praise God. We’re seeing God do incredible things,” he said. “Even through this tragedy, churches that desire to, that are working with what God has done within the situation, they’re seeing lots of growth.”

On his trip into Ukraine in late June, he visited a church plant in Izmayil in southwestern Ukraine launched as a second campus to serve internally displaced persons fleeing war zones. About 350 people attended the launch service, Domke said.

“And it’s not isolated there,” he said. “We’ve started several new churches in the country since the war started. My whole attention and my whole focus has been inside the country.”

In Lutsk, in northwestern Ukraine, a church that lost nearly all its members when residents fled the war, now has about 250 in Sunday worship, Domke said.

“Both of these churches have baptized lots of people since the war started,” he said. “It’s just been phenomenal what God has done in the midst of this war, for churches that have stayed, that are working hard, that are meeting needs and loving people.”

The war led many Baptist congregations to evacuate, with about 400 churches lost within the first six months of the war.

Churches that have been able to continue have done so under great stress.

‘Living day by day, doing ministry’

Domke tells of two church planters in Zaporizhzhia, the site of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and in Kryvyi Rih, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown which Russia bombed in June. The families sleep in the internal hallways of the buildings to survive bomb strikes and hold onto piping within the building for stability when bombs shake their apartments.

“They’re pretty nervous. You can deal with it for a little while, but it interferes with everything and everyday life. The stress is pretty high on them,” Domke said. “They’re still ministering. They’re still living day by day, doing their ministry. They’re still having church services. They’re still doing everything they were, but under a different type of stress now.”

Domke has helped church planters through 30 Send Relief outreach projects in Ukraine—some of them ongoing—that have poured $1.3 million into the country, he said. New churches are sprouting in communities Russia occupied early in the war, where Russia has left heavy structural damage and human carnage.

Domke visits congregations frequently. From Budapest, he reenters Ukraine every four to six weeks, visiting several cities. In late June, he traveled 1,700 miles, spent 43 hours in his car, spent the night in four different cities and met with church planters, encouraging them in their work and offering needed support.

His help includes offering respite for pastors, typically arranging for them to travel to western Ukraine away from war zones. But as recently as July 6, Russia bombed residential areas of Lviv on the Ukraine/Poland border, which had been a safe stopping point for Domke on his trips into the country.

Domke appreciates the prayers and support of Southern Baptists, especially as the war lingers.

“Don’t forget us. Don’t become callous to what’s happening, just because it’s been going on for a year and a half,” he said. “Don’t become callous. We are your missionaries and we are still there trying to reach Ukrainians for Christ.

“It’s harvest time in Ukraine today. There are so many people coming to faith in Christ,” Domke said. “It’s amazing.”

STAVANGER, Norway—God has given his people a mission to come alongside him to stand against the monstrous forces that oppose “God’s homemaking project,” theologian Miroslav Volf told participants at the Sent 2023 Mission Summit.

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture reveals God as the homemaker who desires to dwell among his people, said Volf, professor at Yale Divinity School and director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture.

Volf, author of The Home of God: A Brief Story of Everything, was keynote speaker at the opening session of the mission summit in Stavanger, Norway. The European Baptist Federation sponsored the youth-oriented event in conjunction with the Baptist World Alliance and immediately following the BWA annual meeting.

In the beginning, God enjoyed unhindered fellowship with his human creation until sin entered the world, Volf explained. God entered into covenant with Abraham and gave the law to Moses with the stated desire to “dwell among Israel and be their God,” he noted.

In the New Testament, God the Son entered the world, taking on flesh and dwelling among humanity, he continued. Finally, Revelation speaks of a restored creation and a time when God and humanity will dwell together in the New Jerusalem.

“God created the world to dwell in it,” Volf said. “God the Creator is a homemaker God.”

Monsters disrupt God’s homemaking project

He identified four forces in the world today—which he referred to as metaphorical monsters—that disrupt the home God created and stand in the way of human flourishing.

• Mammon—Love of wealth has created an unjust distribution of resources in which 2.6 billion people are impoverished—“many of whom are either homeless or live under conditions hardly worthy of the name ‘home,’” Volf said.
• Leviathan—Misuse of power reinforces economic injustice and systems in which some are “locked in a gilded prison of luxury and false superiority” while others are “mired in a life of languishing,” he said.

“From the dawn of history until the present day, wealth and power have been thwarting God’s homemaking purpose. More specifically, our inordinate love for wealth and misuse of power have done so,” Volf said.

• Cursus—The constantly escalating pace of living is a modern malady that distorts humanity’s perception of both time and space.

“In short, we are always running behind—always running,” Volf said. “Home needs time, and home needs presence.”

• Medusa—Reification is another modern monster. Like Medusa, who turned living things into stone, it turns people created in God’s image into “cold, lifeless things” that can be manipulated and used.

Christians find their calling in the midst of this conflict between God the homemaker and the monsters that are unleashed within the home, Volf asserted.

“Jesus was God in the world on the mission of planetary homemaking. He gave the disciples his Spirit so that they would continue his mission and do their part in helping make the world into God’s home and ours,” Volf said.

“We can open ourselves to God’s transformative presence. We ourselves can be homes of God and homemakers with God while we await the coming home of God.”

‘Take action to fulfill the vision’

Benjamin Francis of West Bengal, India, global catalyst for the Biglife discipleship movement, challenged young adults to allow God to give them a vision of the world as he sees it and give them a burden for the spiritually lost.

“We are in the business of plundering hell to populate heaven,” he said.

The harvest is plentiful, but God’s people need to respond to God’s call to share the gospel and make disciples, he said.

“Take action to fulfill the vision,” Francis said. “If you want to see what you have never seen, you’ve got to do what you have never done.”

Up to 2.1 million refugees from Syria entered Lebanon after the civil war began in their homeland in March 2011. They carried few material possessions but carried “the burden of memories of loss,” said Naji Daoud, project consultant of True Vine Church in Zahlé, Lebanon.

“They were helpless and hopeless, with no idea how they could improve their situation,” Daoud said.

True Vine Church offered hospitality to the newcomers, providing food, shelter, clothing, mattresses and health care, along with educational opportunities for more than 600 Syrian children.

As members of True Vine Church developed relationships with their new neighbors, they recognized the refugees had a need that affected both their physical well-being and their sense of dignity and worth. They had no way to clean their clothes.

So, the church built a laundry facility to serve the refugee community, complete with four washing machines and four dryers.

While the Syrian women waited for their laundry to wash and dry, and while their children played in a safe area nearby, women from True Vine Church got acquainted with them. Together, they watched the “Jesus” film in Arabic.

“Many gave their lives and hearts to Jesus Christ, and Bible studies emerged,” Daoud said.

God opened doors to Christian witness as members of True Vine Church took on the role of servants, seeking to meet the needs of their refugee neighbors.

“We’re not just washing their clothes. We’re washing their feet,” he said.

‘The challenge is us’

Nabil Costa, executive director of the Lebanese Society for Educational and Social Development, said God’s people must walk through the doors God has opened to present the gospel to the Middle East and North Africa.

“We’ve always been praying for God to change the hearts of Muslims. God answered the prayer,” Costa said. “Now the challenge is us—not them.”

Arab Baptist Theological Seminary graduates serve in 16 countries, and 40 percent of the current 250-member student body come from non-Christian backgrounds, he reported.

Beirut Baptist School has about 1,500 students enrolled, and 92 percent of the student body is Muslim. Parents choose to send their children to a Baptist school in spite of its Baptist Christian identity, because they want their children to have an excellent education, he said.

The “job description” for Christians working in a predominantly Muslim part of the world characterized by unrest and division is straightforward—“hope distribution,” he said.

“Our Lord is the Lord of miracles,” Costa said. “There are many open doors. God always has open doors. The challenge is us.”

NORTH CENTRAL NIGERIA (BP)—At least 450 Christians have died in a series of attacks on Christian villages in three north central Nigerian states since May, according to reports from governmental and nongovernmental religious freedom advocates.

Christian death tolls include at least 300 in several attacks in Plateau state spanning May 15-17, according to reports from Morning Star News and Christian Solidarity Worldwide; more than 100 in attacks spanning May and June in Benue state, Morning Star and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom reported; and 43 in Nasarawa state in mid-May, Morning Star reported.

Tens of thousands were displaced, according to Morning Star and CSW. Whole villages, dozens of church buildings and thousands of homes reportedly were destroyed. Grain was looted.

Morning Star quoted Christian leaders in blaming the attacks on militant Fulani herdsmen.

“As our people are fleeing, herders are occupying these areas and grazing freely on our farms,” Morning Starquoted a press statement signed by Samuel Door and Ephraim Zuai of the Shitile Development Association in Benue.

“Though due to the fear of general insecurity it is difficult to move from village to village to gather exact statistics, hordes of lives have been horrendously eliminated in several villages across the land, such that the whole land is thrown into wailing and mourning.”

‘Dire implications for religious freedom’

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom referenced many of the attacks as ethno-nationalist in a report it released June 9.

“Nigeria is home to a plethora of armed actors committing violence with dire implications for religious freedom. In several regions of the country assailants have targeted ethnoreligious minorities as well as houses of worship and religious ceremonies with violence,” the commission said in the report, ‘Ethno-nationalism and religious freedom in Nigeria,’ which referenced violence spanning June 2022 through May.

“In some areas, armed actors include ethno-nationalist militias seeking to wrest territorial control from government authority. Ethno-nationalist fighters in Nigeria have politicized religion and attacked civilians based on ethnoreligious identity,” the commission report stated.

“These fighters commit some of the most egregious atrocities and human rights violations of any actors in the country. This is particularly true in northcentral Nigeria, where ethno-nationalist fighters affiliated with the predominantly Muslim Fulani community attack vulnerable Christian civilians with impunity.”

But the predominantly Christian Igbo community in southeast Nigeria has also targeted Muslims, the commission report stated.

“Additionally in southeast Nigeria, ethno-nationalist fighters affiliated with the predominantly Christian Igbo community have at times targeted Muslim civilians as a part of their campaign to secede” the commission report said.

“In both northern and southeast Nigeria, ethno-nationalist fighters have been implicated in attacks against both Muslim and Christian worshippers.”

Four pastors killed in recent attacks

In the latest attacks on Christian communities, at least four pastors were killed, according to several Morning Starreports.

On June 4, militant Fulani killed Mangmwos Tangshak Daniel of the Nigeria Baptist Convention in Kantoma village, and Shadrack Ayuba of the Assembly of God Nigeria church in Ntin Kombun village, both in Plateau, Morning Star said, attributing the report to Timothy Daluk, chairman of the Mangu Local Government Area Chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

On May 8 in Benue, militants killed pastor Dominic Dajo of St. Peter Catholic Church in Hirnyam village, and his wife, Morning Star reported. On May 11 in Nasarawa, Fulani killed pastor Daniel Danbeki of the Evangelical Church Winning All in Takalafiya village, Morning Star said, along with his wife and 41 others in an attack spanning several hours.

Nigerians staged a peaceful protest May 25 in Jos, Plateau, as the attacks continued, CSW reported. The killings have included 130 deaths in 23 communities in the Mangu and Riyom Local Government Areas in Plateau, CSW said. The attacks displaced tens of thousands, destroyed thousands of homes and damaged farmlands and food barns.

CSW press officer Reuben Buhari called the attacks “a sad testament to Nigeria’s incapability to protect its own citizens.”

The attacks follow the killings of more than 200 in Christian areas in Benue and Kaduna state in March and April following Nigeria’s election season.

Kiri Kankhwende, CSW press and public affairs team leader, has called the long-term violence “deeply distressing” but “not at all uncommon” in the region.

“The unaddressed insecurity has now metastasized and constitutes a threat to Nigeria’s territorial integrity, with serious implications for the region, the continent and the wider international community,” Kankhwende said April 18.

In other reports from the region, 16 members of the Bege Baptist Church in the Chikun Local Government area of Kaduna, abducted in May, were released June 4 after a ransom was paid, CSW reported June 6.

The 16 were among 40 abducted from the congregation May 7 by armed Fulani militants, CSW said, but many had managed to escape.

Despite the Fulani ethnicity of the assailants, Muslims contributed to the ransom that included a motorcycle, CSW reported.

“I confirm and give thanks that all 16 are now back home,” CSW quoted John Joseph Hayab, Kaduna state chair of CAN. “We are grateful to the local Muslims who contributed towards the ransom, and pray that from now onwards the two religious communities will work together to bring this painful era of kidnapping, violence and killings to an end.”

Fulani militants are among several violent extremist groups active in Nigeria, including Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, Christian persecution watchdog Open Doors reported in 2023 in ranking Nigeria as the sixth most dangerous nation for Christians.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom urged President Joe Biden to raise concerns about religious freedom and human rights in India during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit this week.

The Indian government, led by the Bharatiya Janata Party, has supported discriminatory policies that severely hinder and restrict the religious freedom of minority groups, commissioners said.

“With India’s upcoming state visit, the Biden administration has a unique opportunity to explicitly incorporate religious freedom concerns into the two countries’ bilateral relationship,” said USCIRF Commissioner David Curry.

“It is vital the U.S. government acknowledge the Indian government’s perpetration and toleration of particularly severe violations of religious freedom against its own population and urge the government to uphold its human rights obligations.”

Discriminatory policies commissioners noted include hijab bans, anti-conversion laws and the Citizenship Amendment Act, which excludes Muslims from the fast track to citizenship offered to other migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

“During this state visit, we ask President Biden to raise religious freedom with Prime Minister Modi directly, including by urging him to amend or repeal polices that target and repress religious minorities,” Commissioner Stephen Schneck said.

USCIRF repeatedly has recommended the U.S. Department of State designate India as a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in systematic, ongoing and egregious violations of religious freedom.

Eighteen members of the U.S. Senate and 57 members of the House of Representatives—all Democrats—also sent a letter to the White House urging Biden to discuss human rights issues with Modi, Reuters reported.

Violence continues in Manipur

In the Manipur State of northeast India, mob violence that began May 3 has developed into “ethnic cleansing” and “religious persecution” against Christians, said Pastor Thong Lun of Greater Houston Burmese Christian Fellowship.

Thong’s church has a longstanding ministry among Burmese refugees in northeast India, and he has maintained close contact with sources there.

At least 250 churches have been burned in the Manipur State, a month and a half after mob violence began there, Thong reported.

Conflict between the predominantly Christian Kuki ethnic group and the mostly Hindu Meitei people began as a political dispute over land rights and scheduled tribal status. Scheduled tribes have constitutionally granted property protection, and tribal members are entitled to political representation, educational benefits and affirmative action in employment.

However, after mobs raided police stations and seized more than 5,000 weapons, both Kuki and Meitei Christians have been targeted.

On June 2, Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh announced the death toll reached 98, but other sources estimate a significantly higher number of fatalities.

More than a month after mob violence began in the Manipur State of northeast India, at least 250 churches have been burned, and casualty reports grow daily.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah visited the region in mid-May and called on the minority Kuki and majority Meitei ethnic communities to observe a two-week truce.

“The violence did not stop,” said Pastor Thong Lun of Greater Houston Burmese Christian Fellowship. Thong’s church has a longstanding ministry among refugees from Myanmar who live in northeast India, and he has maintained close contact with sources there.

“The majority-Hindu Meitei did not stop,” Thong said. “They attacked villages.”

Manipur Chief Minister Biren Singh announced the death toll reached 98 on June 2, but other sources estimate twice that number of fatalities.

“In remote tribal areas, there are people who have been missing for weeks, and there is no way to know if they are dead,” Thong said.

Officials report more than 300 people have been injured, and about 37,000 displaced people are in relief shelters. More than 4,000 cases of arson have been reported.

From political dispute to ethnic cleansing

Conflict between the Kuki, a predominantly Christian ethnic group, and the Meitei, who are mostly Hindu, began as a political dispute over land rights.

Riots first broke out in response to May 3 protests calling on the government to grant scheduled tribe status to the Metei people. Scheduled tribes have constitutionally granted property protection, and tribal members have access to political representation, educational benefits and affirmative action in employment.

The political situation is “complicated and difficult for anyone on the outside to understand,” Thong acknowledged.

But he views the mob violence—and the lack of protection offered by state police—as clearly evil.

“It is ethnic cleansing,” Thong said. “And there’s also religious persecution involved. … The Meitei Hindu nationalists are determined to wipe out the tribal Kuki Christians from the land.

“But the mobs also are destroying Meitei Christian churches and killing their own people who are Christians. Mobs raided police stations and took about 5,000 guns they are turning on their own people.”

Thong expressed hope President Biden will raise issues of human rights and religious freedom—particularly the persecution of Kuki Christians in Manipur—when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in the United States for a White House visit and state dinner in two weeks.

The Kuki Christians desperately need humanitarian aid, and ethnic and religious minorities in the region need protection the state police are failing to provide, Thong said.

He urged Texas Baptists and other concerned Christians to pray for an end to violence in Manipur and for the protection of those who are helpless, such as refugees from Myanmar—such as his own mother—who have been living near the border.

“She moved to India two years ago” after the February 2021 military coup in Myanmar, he noted. “In the town where she has been living, she was frightened by the fighting and burning. Now, she is moving back to Burma—even though there is no safety there, either.”

Mervyn Thomas, founding president of the Christian Solidarity Worldwide human rights organization, likewise called for the protection of vulnerable communities.

“Manipur has been in a state of shocking violence for over a month now, and it is clear that the measures taken by the state and central governments thus far have been insufficient to halt this crisis,” he said.

“We extend our deepest condolences to all those who have lost loved ones in the violence and stand in solidarity with those displaced from their homes. We call on authorities in Manipur to ensure that vulnerable communities are protected, that those who have been displaced are able to return home safely and afforded any assistance they may need to rebuild their lives, and that those responsible for these egregious acts are brought to justice.”

Ukrainian Baptists may not be beating swords into plowshares yet, but some have started by converting a weapon of war into a pulpit to proclaim the gospel of peace.

Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, tweeted June 8 from Kyiv: “Hundreds of Ukrainian pastors are in a conference to study 1 Peter under the theme of serving as pastors in a time of suffering.”

Along with a brief video clip of the worship service, Brown posted on Twitter a photo of himself and Pastor Igor Bandura, vice president of the All-Ukrainian Union of Evangelical Christian-Baptists, standing behind a “very special pulpit.”

 “It is a missile shot down over Ukraine that some of the lay Baptists converted into a pulpit on the one-year anniversary of the war and in the spirit of Isaiah 2:4,” Brown explained.

In that passage, the Hebrew prophet envisions a time when God “shall judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more” (NRSV).

‘The things that make for peace’

Over the past 15 months, Ukrainian Baptists have been focused on pursuing “the things that make for peace” in a nation torn by war.

In the days and weeks immediately after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Baptist churches provided respite care for internally placed people from Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.

During the winter months, Baptist congregations became what Ukrainian Baptists called “centers of hope and heat” when many homes lacked both.

With assistance from the Baptist World Alliance and the European Baptist Federation, Ukrainian Baptists developed mobile kitchens and staffed them in areas where people were unable to prepare their own meals.

During a webinar in February, Bandura noted the toll ministry in a war zone has taken on pastors—both those who were displaced from about 300 churches in Russian-occupied territory and those who have been serving day-in and day-out to meet needs.

“Most of our pastors are really tired,” he said. “You can see this when you speak with them and when you look into their eyes.”

To encourage them, the Baptist Union sponsored two-day and three-day retreats for pastors and spouses—and organized the June conference.

“It’s an honor to be in Kyiv with them,” Brown tweeted.

Sixteen members of Bege Baptist Church of Masala in central Nigeria were released June 4 after being kidnapped nearly a month earlier.

Gunmen abducted 43 individuals during a May 7 morning worship service at Bege Baptist Church in Nigeria’s Kaduna State, John Joseph Hayab, national field director for Global Peace Foundation-Nigeria, reported.

“Some escaped on their way, and the bandits released others who could not walk the long distance,” Hayab wrote in a June 7 email to the Baptist Standard. “Four weeks later, the remaining 16 were released after ransom had been paid, with also some support from their Muslim neighbors.”

Hayab, Kaduna State Chair of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told Christian Solidarity Worldwide local Muslims contributed funds toward the ransom and also purchased a motorcycle requested by the kidnappers as part of the payment.

“We are grateful to the local Muslims who contributed towards the ransom, and pray that from now onwards, the two religious communities will work together to bring this painful era of kidnapping, violence and killings to an end,” he told CSW.

Relief mingled with continued concern

While religious freedom advocates applauded the interfaith cooperation that helped secure the release of the kidnapped Baptists, some registered concern about continued attacks on Christians and the government’s failure to provide security.

“We are grateful for the freedom of the 16 church members and for the efforts of the local Christian and Muslim communities to secure their release. However, local authorities in Kaduna and national leaders need to adopt much stronger security and legal protections to stop the ongoing cycle of violence against religious minorities” said Trent Martin, advocacy and training coordinator for the 21Wilberforce human rights organization.

“The United States must also not turn a blind eye to the deteriorating situation in Nigeria and should redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern to encourage swift action to end these widespread attacks on religious freedom.”

When the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom issued its annual report in May, it recommended Nigeria be designated as a Country of Particular Concern—a nation whose government engages in or tolerates “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations.”

“Rampant violence and atrocities across Nigeria continued to impact freedom of religion or belief for many Nigerians,” the report stated, pointing specifically to attacks on churches and individual Christians by the Islamic State West Africa Province.

In a May 1 virtual event marking the release of the report, Commissioner Frank Wolf—author of the International Religious Freedom Act when he served in the U.S. House of Representatives—described the situation in Nigeria succinctly.

“Nigeria is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians,” Wolf said.

Terrorist attacks claimed the lives of more than 200 Christians in the states of Benue and Kaduna in late March and early April in the aftermath of an election season.

“Despite government rhetoric calling for interfaith unity, the Nigerian government has generally failed to enact meaningful policy reforms and changes to address the drivers of violence impacting religious liberty,” the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said in an April 19 statement.

In a widely viewed video, Nasir el-Rufai, former governor of Kaduna State, expressed satisfaction at having secured Muslim dominance politically. During El-Rufai’s eight years as governor, predominantly Christian southern Kaduna experienced a significant rise in armed attacks.

CSW described the situation during his years in office as characterized by “thousands killed, thousands more displaced, and hundreds of villages destroyed, occupied by militia or too dangerous to approach.”

Anyone who spoke out against abuses—as well as members of targeted communities who tried to defend their homes—were “regularly detained arbitrarily and indefinitely, disarmed, or harassed judicially,” CSW noted.

Baptist church among buildings demolished

As the end of his time in office approached, El-Rufai ordered the demolition of more than 900 buildings—some belonging to a minority Shi’a community and others belonging to Christians, including Alheri Baptist Church on May 22.

Mervyn Thomas, founding president of CSW, welcomed the release of the 16 kidnapped Baptist worshippers and applauded members of the local Muslim community who contributed to secure their release.

“However, the comments of former governor El-Rufai illustrate that the situation remains highly charged as violations in southern Kaduna continue to manifest along religious fault lines while those with the power to end them have prioritized other agendas,” Thomas said.

“We also lament the unnecessary loss of lives in the latest irregular demolitions in Kaduna State, which largely target religious minorities or political opponents of the former governor, and were once again conducted in defiance of court orders.

“We urge the Nigerian authorities to challenge anyone who fosters religious division, to do far more to combat religion-related violence, and to prioritize the protection of vulnerable communities.”

Thomas also called on the international community to draw attention to the human rights crisis in Nigeria and to urge “redress and compensation for the extrajudicial killings and demolitions in Kaduna State.”

John Gongwer, executive director of 21 Wilberforce, urged Nigerian religious and political leaders to work with the international community to seek reform.

“The reality is that this sequenced cycle of incident-lament-action-call has become a broken record and will continue to be until Nigerians work together with their international partners for change,” he said.

Gongwer noted 21Wilberforce is in discussions with Nigerian pastors, national and regional faith leaders, and Nigerian political and judicial officials to develop and support initiatives “that monitor and report on threats to religious freedom and, perhaps more importantly, to work to equip local partners on how to respond to and help mitigate these threats and human rights violations.”

When a dam in Ukraine was destroyed, sending floodwaters downstream and thousands fleeing for their lives, and a deadly train crash in India left vast humanitarian and spiritual needs, Texas Baptist Men responded to both tragedies through existing local partnerships.

“The primary need right now is financial resources to mobilize the local efforts,” said Mickey Lenamon, TBM executive director and CEO. “In both cases, our partners are meeting acute needs, and we are striving to support them as quickly as possible.

“Each time they provide a meal, pray with someone in a hospital or transport a family to safety, they are doing so in the name of Christ”

The dam explosion in Ukraine is the latest catastrophe resulting from the Russian invasion of the country.

“We have ministry partners there that are begging for help with inflatable boats, power banks, water, transporting people to safety,” said Rand Jenkins, director of the TBM ministry advancement team, relaying information from the Ukrainian partner.

The extent of deaths, injuries and damage is not yet known.

The ministry partner in Ukraine sent an urgent text to Jenkins June 6: “We have a church we partner with that’s there, right next to this flooding. They have four minivans they use to take people to safety. People are lining up to receive help—food, clothes, etc.”

In India, more than 270 people are dead and 1,200 injured. TBM already has begun transferring international relief funds in response.

“For the last several years, TBM has been quietly building the infrastructure of a disaster relief network in this very area,” Lenamon said. “We have people on the ground. When the wreck happened, TBM partners knew how to step up in the name of Christ.”

Initial funding provides relief for victims and their families.

“Our ministry partner is providing meals and temporary housing to victims and their families, as well as visiting, praying with, counseling and encouraging victims in hospitals,” Lenamon said.

Rupert Robbins, TBM disaster relief associate director, spent weeks in the region of India where the wreck occurred.

“Our partners in India are going ahead with responses as a step of faith,” Robbins said. “They are coordinating with doctors and hospital officials to determine the most pressing needs that we can address.”

Lenamon asked for people to pray for the victims and that God would use these ministry efforts to “spread God’s love and hope across Ukraine and India. These tragedies just break my heart.”

To support TBM international relief efforts financially, click here.

East Texas Baptist University women’s basketball team played games with schoolchildren, taught young people how to dribble and shoot, assisted a prison ministry, competed against local teams and shared their faith on a recent trip to Northern Ireland.

The student-athletes and coaches partnered with the International Sports Federation and served alongside the Salt Factory Sports group in Belfast as part of ETBU’s 16th Tiger Athletic Mission Experience.

At William Foote Memorial Primary School, the Tigers played castle ball, bucket ball and American football with the students. The ETBU team also conducted basketball clinics at Harmony Hill School and Holy Trinity School in Belfast, teaching students various skills and playing games.

“One kid said to me, ‘Once you find something you love, it becomes dangerous to stop learning,’” said Erin Berry, a senior psychology major at ETBU. “The more I have let those words sink in, the more meaningful they have become.

“As Christians, we must obey [God’s] will for our lives by taking time to connect with him through truth and his word.”

Traveling to Lisburn, the Tigers faced the Phoenix Rockets. Following the game, the two squads joined together in fellowship.

ETBU students also had opportunities for sightseeing and learning more about Northern Ireland, visiting Belfast Castle, Cave Hill Country Park and the Ulster Museum. They also toured the monastery of Saint Mo-Choi of Nendrum, the Inch Abbey and the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity, where Saint Patrick is buried.

Joining in worship and ministry

At the cathedral, ETBU junior worship studies major Abigail Taylor played the piano and led the team in worship.

“Being able to worship together in this place was an indescribable experience,” Taylor said. “It was a humbling and precious time for me to be able to worship in such a beautiful cathedral on the other side of the world. The presence of the Holy Spirit was felt like never before.”

Splitting into small groups, the ETBU student-athletes spent one day participating in various sports camps and clinics at three schools.

“In the moments we got to spend with the kids each morning, we let the joy of Christ shine through us in everything we were doing,” said Michaela James, a senior elementary education major at ETBU.

The team led a Saturday morning basketball camp for children from throughout the community. The Tigers joined campers and their families for lunch, providing the student-athletes an opportunity to interact further and share how Christ has impacted their lives.

Traveling to Dublin, the ETBU team faced the Ireland Women’s Under 20 National Team and enjoyed spending time with the team in a luncheon following the game.

“Playing against some of Ireland’s best players in our age division has been an incredible experience and is an opportunity I will never forget,” said Tiffany Bickford, a freshman psychology major.

On Sunday, the team went to Lagan Valley Vineyard church to participate in morning worship, and they traveled to St. Anne’s Cathedral for evening worship and prayer.

 Between worship services, they ventured to Saint George’s Market to enjoy the culture and explore food, clothing and jewelry vendors from Belfast.

The Tigers also partnered with Lagan Valley Vineyard Church to assist the church’s prison ministry, which shares the love of Christ with inmates and their families in Northern Ireland. ETBU student-athletes and coaches visited with members of the ministry, and they helped clean and organize a new facility the organization will be moving into.

In the final game of the trip, the Tigers defeated the Dublin Lions. Mollie Dittmar, a senior ETBU mathematics education major, reflected on conversations among the teams post-game.

“It was so much fun talking with the girls and comparing the similarities and differences from our lifestyles,” Dittmar said. “My prayer is that through our words and actions, the love of Christ was on full display.

“The Lord moved in my heart and the hearts of others throughout our team on this trip. This was an incredible experience, and I am so thankful for this opportunity.”

The women’s basketball team and staff expected lives in Northern Ireland to be shaped on the trip, but God also worked in the lives of the ETBU student-athletes.

“We began our trip thinking about the lives of people in Northern Ireland that would be changed but found quickly how this experience transformed us from the inside out,” ETBU Women’s Basketball Head Coach Blake Arbogast said.

 “To watch our team serve and share the gospel in a country divided by hatred based on what street they live on, the school they attend, or even what side of a wall they live on, was very powerful.

“We are grateful for the work that our partner, Salt Factory Sports, does to further God’s kingdom through sports ministry in Northern Ireland. We are grateful to the individuals that worked tirelessly to make this trip possible through prayer and donations to allow our group to travel to one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen.”

KHARTOUM, Sudan (BP)—At least 60 infants and children have died in a Khartoum orphanage since the civil conflict began in Sudan, the Associated Press reported May 31 amid an extended ceasefire to facilitate humanitarian aid.

At least 26 of the deaths at the Al-Mayqoma orphanage occurred in a single weekend May 26-27, with some victims as young as 3 months, AP reported. Starvation was cited as a common cause of death, as fighting blocked aid to the orphanage and impeded evacuation.

More than 822 civilians died in fighting through May 19, the Sudan Doctors Syndicate announced, and more than 3,200 were injured.

Empower One, an evangelistic church-planting group seeking to provide humanitarian aid to refugees of the conflict, is encouraging support for Sudanese relief efforts.

“Our desire is to provide relief for the Sudanese refugees who are arriving into South Sudan with no food or water,” said Chad Vandiver, U.S. director of Empower One Network. “Many of them need new clothes.

“We’re wanting to provide relief to them through our church planters in South Sudan. They are ready and willing to provide relief while having gospel conversations among the refugees.”

Vandiver is a former International Mission Board missionary who has worked with Empower One for a year in establishing “flagship church multiplication centers” in key locations in South Sudan. Centers are designed to include churches, pharmacies, clinics, primary and secondary schools, water kiosks and radio towers.

“We desperately need Southern Baptists to give toward the crisis in Sudan in order to meet the needs of the people on the ground,” Vandiver said, suggesting gifts to Send Relief and Empower One.

The civil fighting displaced 1.65 million Sudanese as of May 29, the U.N. International Organization for Migration reported, with more than 1.2 million displaced internally. About 85,200 had made it to South Sudan, the organization said.

‘A catastrophic situation’

More children could die as fighting continues, officials have warned, with AP reporting at least 341 children remain at Al-Mayqoma orphanage. Among them are 231 infants ranging in age from 6 months to a year, referencing interviews with a dozen doctors, health officials and others.

“It is a catastrophic situation,” AP quoted orphanage volunteer Afkar Omar Moustafa. “This was something we expected from day one” of the fighting.

More than 13.6 million children in Sudan need life-saving humanitarian support, UNICEF reported May 29.

A one-week ceasefire was extended five days May 29. But the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, monitoring the situation, said both sides have continued fighting in Khartoum, Omdurman and Bahri, Reuters reported.

Still, fighting has sufficiently decreased during the ceasefire to allow humanitarian aid to reach some of those in need, according to reports.

Fighting began April 15 between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group ahead of a scheduled transitional government aimed at establishing democracy. Several attempts to strengthen human rights in the nation have failed.

Sudan suffered decades of civil wars that began in the mid-20th century before the country split in 2011, establishing Sudan as a majority Muslim north and a majority (60.5 percent) Christian South Sudan.

As the war in Ukraine continues, those who once called the country home think about it daily, living apart from family, anxious about the future.

More than 14 months ago, Russia invaded Ukraine, tearing families apart and causing trauma. Since then, millions of women and children have been living as refugees in countries neighboring theirs but also in Germany, Italy, Canada, the United States and elsewhere.

Texas Baptist Men has ministered to thousands of people who fled their homes after the war began.

As needs continue to evolve, TBM seeks to meet them. Most recently, TBM sent a psychotherapist to a women’s conference in Warsaw, Poland. Denise Jenkins led sessions on emotional healing and overcoming post-traumatic stress.

“I set up the sessions to discuss PTSD and equip the women with ways to overcome and create positive thoughts amidst the situation,” she said. “As we interacted during the conference, I realized that they also needed permission to feel the way they do, to be able to start a life, even if only temporary, where they are, and it would not negate their future ability to return home.”

 Over the past year, “a strong sense of despair has set in among the Ukrainian refugees,” said Mikhail Baloha, pastor of a Russian-speaking church in Warsaw. His wife, Oksana, organized the conference for some of the thousands of women and children the church works with daily.

 “Denise’s presence here, her abilities, her time with them, has been even more valuable than I thought it would have been,” Oksana Baloha said after the conference. “In Ukraine and many former Soviet countries, there are no resources for psychological support.”

Dealing with difficult emotions

Leonid Regheta, pastor of River of Life Church-Dallas, helped translate for Jenkins. The Ukrainian-born pastor still has friends and family in Ukraine and has seen the psychological needs created by war firsthand as he has ministered in Ukraine.

 “As spring in Texas springs, it usually harbors tornadoes,” he said. “When the storms arise, sirens ring across communities and Texans take precautions. The same sirens ring in Ukraine. But instead of warning of tornadoes, they portend bombs. The sirens repeatedly elicit immediate fear.”

 Jenkins’ breakout sessions equipped the ladies to work with their children.

“Being able to talk with these ladies and hear what they endured showcases the terrible fallout from the war and fully explains their feelings of despair, worry, and anxiety. They feel lost, forgotten and often useless in stopping the war,” she said.

Beyond the workshop sessions, Jenkins provided limited personal counseling.

“The ladies I spoke with, some dealing with PTSD, but all were dealing with difficult emotions,” she said. “Some were distraught—torn between the desire to return to ‘home’ but enjoying the new-found life in Warsaw with their children.

“Much like World War II forced women into the workforce, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has done the same: Showing a freedom, a liberty and empowerment not previously afforded,” Jenkins said.

“I simply told them and assured them the choice is theirs to make. They felt relieved just hearing that.”