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.”

WASHINGTON (RNS)—U.S. State Department officials continued to point to religious freedom atrocities in Russia, China and Afghanistan as they released their annual report on threats to religious liberties across the globe.

“Far too many governments continue to freely target faith community members within their borders,” said Rashad Hussain, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, at a May 15 event with Secretary of State Antony Blinken marking the release of the 2022 International Religious Freedom Report.

“A second theme and trend the report highlights is the increase of government restrictions on access to holy sites and places of worship.”

Hussain pointed to Russia’s war in Ukraine as one cause of destruction to religious sites and noted the ways Chinese authorities have caused Muslims and Buddhists to lose sacred spaces.

“We have all seen the sad pictures of Ukraine’s civilians sifting through the rubble of their beautiful and most historic churches destroyed by Russia’s brutal war of aggression,” he said.

“Uyghurs have witnessed the PRC (People’s Republic of China) Government destroy or repurpose their mosques or cemeteries. Authorities also destroyed the monasteries of Tibetan Buddhists and expelled monks and nuns.”

Hussain also spoke of how members of Afghan communities who “do not toe the Taliban’s narrow theological line” need to flee or hide their religious identity.

The report, which assesses conditions in 199 countries, also looks at policies and laws, including those about blasphemy and apostasy, that “criminalize religious expression” and extend discrimination against religious minorities and others who differ from rules of an accepted theology.

“The report describes growing bigotry at the societal level in many places around the world,” said Hussain, who noted “the ongoing and deeply disturbing proliferation of antisemitism, anti-Muslim hatred and xenophobia that target religious and nonreligious communities.”

Progress noted in some areas

As they marked the 25th anniversary of the International Religious Freedom Act—which requires the annual report and established the ambassador position—State Department leaders described how religious freedoms are being truncated and trampled upon, but also noted the progress for religious rights that occurred in some countries.

“Belgium formally recognized its Buddhist minority, which entitles Buddhist religious organizations to teach their faith in state schools and eventually to apply for federal funding to do so,” Blinken said in his remarks.

“Lawmakers in Brazil codified religious freedom guarantees for Afro-Brazilian indigenous communities at the municipal and state levels across the country. They also passed legislation making it a crime to carry out discriminatory acts against any religious practices.”

Organizations such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations and the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom praised the State Department’s report.

“We welcome this latest report highlighting the deeply concerning persecution and violence targeting Muslims, Christians and other religious minority communities in India and China,” said Corey Saylor, CAIR’s director of research and advocacy.

Both CAIR and USCIRF have urged the Biden administration to add India to its list of countries of particular concern, and the commission, in its own recent report, recommended four others: Afghanistan, Nigeria, Syria and Vietnam.

Already listed as so-called CPCs are: Myanmar (which the department and USCIRF refer to as Burma), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Blinken is expected to announce the department’s determinations of CPCs and its second-tier “special watch list” by year’s end.

Officials of USCIRF—which also was authorized a quarter century ago—responded to the report with a reiterated request that those countries known for egregious violations be penalized with “tangible consequences” by the administration and Congress.

“Across the world, millions experience discrimination, harassment, imprisonment, violence and other gross human rights violations for peacefully exercising their freedom of religion or belief,” said commission Chair Nury Turkel.

“The International Religious Freedom Report is an invaluable tool in the fight to hold violators accountable and improve global religious freedom conditions.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom compiled 2,000-plus names on its Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List, but the watchdog agency acknowledges the names of millions of others who face persecution and oppression remain unknown.

Nevertheless, commission leaders said they created the database to “put a human face” on the global issue of religious repression.

The commission announced May 5 it surpassed the 2,000 mark in its database. The list includes victims who have been detained, imprisoned, placed under house arrest, disappeared, been forced to renounce their faith, or been tortured for practicing their religious belief or advocating for religious freedom.

“Shockingly, people all across the world face prosecution, prison time, state-sanctioned extrajudicial acts, and other forms of punishment for peacefully exercising their freedom of religion or belief and defending others’ rights to religious freedom,” Commission Chair Nury Turkel said.

“By documenting these cases, USCIRF shares the horrific stories of not only those individuals experiencing severe violations of their fundamental right to freedom of religion or belief, but also of the millions of others who are forced to live under the tyranny of religious repression.”

The list includes Hkalam Samson, former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention, who was sentenced on Good Friday to six years in prison in Myanmar for his human rights advocacy; and Lorenzo Rosales Fajardo, pastor of Monte de Sion Independent Church in Palma Soriano, who is serving a seven-year sentence in Cuba for participating in peaceful protests.

It also includes:

• Mykhailo Reznikov, a Ukrainian Baptist pastor detained by Russian military in occupied Mariupol in March 2022 while he was searching for food for members of his church. His whereabouts are unknown.
• Wang Shunping, a Chinese Christian detained last August for “organizing and sponsoring an illegal gathering”—an event for young people that included prayer, Bible study and music lessons. His current status is unknown.

“The U.S. government must support victims and their families, push for the release of religious prisoners of conscience, and hold accountable those governments and officials that perpetrate or tolerate these egregious religious freedom violations,” said Abraham Cooper, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

“USCIRF will continue to put a human face on these largely unknown victims and call for justice for those individuals targeted on the basis of their religion or belief.”

Rioting mobs have destroyed at least 40 churches and forced thousands of Kuki, Zomi and other minority hill-dwelling tribes—most of them Christians—from their homes in the Manipur State of northeast India.

“This is ethnic cleansing, as well as religious persecution,” said Pastor Thong Kho Lun of Greater Houston Burmese Christian Fellowship, which has a longstanding ministry among refugees from Myanmar.

Thong has been in close contact with Christians in Manipur, including Thongkhosei Haokip, general secretary of the Kuki Baptist Convention, who asked Christians in America to pray.

Rioting began May 3

Looting, vandalism and arson began in Manipur on May 3. Riots broke out in response to protests that focused on calls for the government to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the Meitei people, a predominantly Hindu group who constitute the majority population in Manipur.

Members of scheduled tribes constitutionally are granted certain property protections and have access to political representation, educational benefits and affirmative action in employment.

Tensions between the majority Meitei people and minority tribes in Manipur over land ownership and affirmative action have existed for decades. However, Thong said, Christians in the region blame the latest surge of violence on a rising tide of militant Hindu nationalism.

“Mobs started burning churches, and then they went house to house,” Thong said, noting his sources said members of the mob secured weapons by raiding local police stations.

“The police cannot control the mobs,” he added.

Vee Tetseo, general secretary of the Asia Pacific Baptist Federation, provided a list of 16 named fatalities, 27 burned villages and at least 10 Evangelical Baptist churches destroyed, along with a field office and staff quarters in Meitram.

Some sources indicate up to 40 Kuki churches and 20 Meitei churches have been burned. Precise numbers are difficult to obtain because Internet connections have been disabled and travel is limited.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported the chief minister of Manipur, N Biren Singh, said on May 8 that 60 people were killed, 231 were injured and 1,700 homes had been burned down.

Some female students at a Christian boarding school reportedly were sexually assaulted.

The Times of Israel reported two synagogues were burned down and a Torah scroll was torched.

Reuters reported authorities evacuated about 20,000 people to camps guarded by the military.

Thong said his sources in Manipur said evacuees in the camps are subsisting primarily on bread and water, and even that is in short supply.

Asia Pacific Baptists call for peace

The Asia Pacific Baptist Federation issued a statement condemning “all forms of violence” and calling for “calm and the restoration of peace in Manipur.”

The federation—a regional affiliate of the Baptist World Alliance—includes 65 member conventions and unions in 22 countries and more than 40,000 churches.

“The reports of attacks on churches, sacred spaces, properties and individuals are deeply troubling and a violation of fundamental human rights,” the federation stated.

The statement underscored the group’s belief “that violence in any form is never a solution and only results in harm, loss of lives and destruction of property.”

“We urge all parties involved to engage in peaceful dialogue and find a nonviolent resolution to their differences,” the federation stated. “The right to freedom of religion and belief is a fundamental human right, and any attack on places of worship, sacred spaces and individuals practicing their faith is unacceptable. We call upon all parties to respect the sanctity of sacred spaces and properties.”

The federation urged authorities “to take swift action to ensure the safety and security of all individuals and all communities affected by this violence and to bring those instigating conflict and the perpetrators to justice.”

“We acknowledge the longstanding coexistence of different communities in Manipur and pray that the long-term grievances are suitably addressed in consultation with the people,” the statement of the federation continued.

“We assure the people of Manipur of our prayers and support towards building a peaceful and inclusive society where every individual can live without fear or discrimination.

“We call upon all citizens and groups of the society to engage in a reflective, constructive dialogue to find a peaceful resolution. Let us work together towards reconciliation and healing, and toward building a peaceful Manipur.”

In a May 9 statement, the Baptist World Alliance noted more than 750 homes of Baptist church members were destroyed, damaged, or ransacked and looted.

“We call upon all people of goodwill to pray for peace, lift their voice as ambassadors of reconciliation, and live with generosity on behalf of all impacted by this violence,” the BWA statement reads.

“To community and government leaders, we urge authorities to take immediate and appropriate actions to ensure the safety and security of all individuals, and to bring perpetrators of violence to justice. We call for the rebuilding of devastated communities, care for the displaced, and resolution of long-term grievances through constructive dialogue. We call for the protection of all places of worship, and a commitment to rebuild damaged places of worship, including the over twenty Baptist churches that have already been reported as destroyed.

“As we grieve for all who are suffering, we pray for the establishment of healing, just peace, human rights and religious freedom for all. We pledge to stand together with you in prayer and support in working together with you for a future where every diverse community lives in reconciliation and peace that results in flourishing freedom for everyone.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally was posted May 6. It was updated May 8 after the updated number of 40 destroyed churches was confirmed. According to a May 9 report by CSW, Chief Minister of Manipur N Biren Singh said on May 8 that 60 people were killed, 231 were injured and 1,700 homes had been burned down. The article also was updated to include the May 9 statement from the Baptist World Alliance.

KHARTOUM, Sudan (BP)—At least four churches have been destroyed and a congregation directly assaulted in Sudan, signaling the earliest reports of religious suffering in the fight for governmental control that erupted in mid-April.

While it’s not clear whether the damages are the result of targeted religious persecution in the country that has failed to find democracy through decades of civil war, religious liberty advocates have expressed concern.

Todd Nettleton of Voice of the Martyrs, a ministry supporting persecuted Christians globally, said the fighting that has killed hundreds of civilians could provide a cover for targeted attacks on Christians.

“One of the dangers of the situation in Sudan is that persecution and targeting of churches and Christians can be ‘disguised’ in the midst of airstrikes, missiles and gunfire,” said Nettleton, host of VOM Radio and chief of media relations and message integration for Voice of the Martyrs.

“VOM contacts know of at least four churches in Sudan that have been destroyed since the fighting began. While it’s difficult to determine if the churches were specifically targeted, we don’t hear reports of mosques being destroyed, so it seems enemies of the gospel are taking advantage of the fighting and chaos to target churches.”

Assault by paramilitary forces

Christian Solidarity Worldwide, a ministry advocating globally for religious freedom, told of an assault by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on an individual congregation to seize church facilities.

“Places of worship have also been violated,” CSW said in an April 27 press release. “CSW learned that on 17 April an Anglican church in central Khartoum was seized as a military base by suspected RSF fighters, who damaged six cars, and forced 42 people who were sheltering there, and who included the church leader and his family, to leave the building after physically assaulting several of them.

“The church is a five-minute drive from the army headquarters. In Bahri, Khartoum North, the Evangelical Church was bombed and partially burned.”

At least 291 civilians had been killed in the conflict between the RSF and the Sudanese Army as of April 26, according to the Sudanese Doctors Syndicate. Christians are included in the number, as Khartoum—ground zero of the conflict—is a main city for Christians in the majority Sunni Muslim country.

“VOM contacts say an increasing number of Christians have been killed in the fighting,” Nettleton said. “Again, it is hard to determine if Christians are specifically being targeted. Sources also report injured Christians are being turned away at state hospitals, and that Christians are being denied food relief that is being provided to Muslim citizens.”

Escalating violence

The current fighting in Sudan began within days of a scheduled transitional government aimed at establishing democracy in the country after several failed attempts to strengthen human rights there.

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 Christian South Sudan.

The current fight for control is exacerbating preexisting violence in Sudan, CSW said.

“While fighting is severe in areas across the country, the situation in the fragile Darfur region, where levels of violence were already worrying prior to the outbreak of current hostilities, is particularly alarming,” CSW said in its press release.

“Not only does the RSF have a substantial presence in the area; in El Geneina, western Darfur, the SAF has aggravated ethnic tensions by withdrawing its forces to other affected areas while the police handed weaponry to members of African tribes, who have had no choice but to defend themselves against RSF, which consists of predominately Arab tribes.”

Nettleton urged Christians to pray for God’s protection over Sudanese Christians, for a peaceful solution to the newest conflict, for a long-term political solution that allows more religious freedom in Sudan, and for “wisdom and discernment for church leaders as they shepherd their flocks during this very difficult season.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom commended the State Department for designating Cuba and Nicaragua as “Countries of Particular Concern” for the first time but voiced “extreme disappointment” the department failed to include Nigeria and India.

The commission also urged the U.S. government not to issue waivers to any nations on the CPC list and to hold those countries accountable through sanctions.

The CPC designation is reserved for nations whose governments engage in or tolerate “systematic, ongoing and egregious violations.”

Pointing to rising authoritarianism and the targeting of religious minorities, the commission in its annual report recommended 17 nations receive CPC designation.

The commission affirmed the U.S. Department of State’s action last November designating 12 nations as Countries of Particular Concern: Burma (Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikstan and Turkmenistan.

“In Cuba, religious freedom conditions in 2022 worsened considerably, with the government seeking total dominance over religious life in the country,” the commission report stated.

The commission also noted Nicaragua singled out Roman Catholics for persecution by imprisoning priests, forcing church-affiliated organizations to close and barring Catholic rituals.

Violence and atrocities in Nigeria

Commissioners expressed concern about the omission of Nigeria, Afghanistan, India, Syria and Vietnam from the State Department’s CPC list—action the commission previously has urged and in spite of the State Department’s “own reporting documenting the nature and extent of the religious freedom violations in those countries.”

The commission has recommended CPC status for Nigeria since 2009, Syria since 2014, India since 2020 and Afghanistan since 2022.

“Nigeria is the most dangerous country in the world for Christians,” Commissioner Frank Wolf, former member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a May 1 virtual event marking the release of the commission’s annual report.

In Congress, Wolf was the author of the International Religious Freedom Act and founder of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission.

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

In Nigeria—the most populous nation in Africa with an estimated 219 million people—the country’s criminal code includes a penalty of up to two years imprisonment for blasphemy. In 12 northern states where Islamic Sharia law is employed alongside civil law, longer sentences and even death penalties are in effect for blasphemy.

Human rights in Iran ‘deteriorated’

The commission’s annual report particularly focuses on Iran, where the government targeted women’s rights protesters and continued a “decades-long campaign” against religious minorities.

“Iranian authorities’ systematic use of sexual and gender-based violence against [women involved in protests] represents a purposeful weaponization of religious conceptions of purity, modesty and gender hierarchy in an effort to shame Iranians out of peacefully asserting their fundamental rights to religious freedom,” the report states.

Religious freedom conditions in Iran that already were “extremely poor” prior to the September 2022 protests “deteriorated considerably due to the government’s severe brutality against Iranians peacefully asserting their religious freedom,” commission Chair Nury Turkel said.

The commission “is disheartened by the deteriorating conditions for freedom of religion or belief in some countries—especially in Iran, where authorities harassed, arrested, tortured and sexually assaulted people peacefully protesting against mandatory hijab laws, alongside their brutal continuing repression of religious minority communities,” Turkel said.

Commission Vice Chair Abraham Cooper urged the Biden administration to “use the CPC designation tool more effectively, as too many of the State Department’s CPC countries are repeatedly named as such each year, but results in little to no substantive change.”

Additions to Special Watch List

Last November, the State Department placed four countries on its “Special Watch List,” one step below CPC designation: Algeria, Central African Republic, Comoros and Vietnam.

In addition to recommending CPC designation for Vietnam, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended Algeria and Central African Republic remain on the Special Watch List.

While the commission continued to recommend CPC status for Vietnam, it voiced hope that the State Department’s adding of Vietnam to the Special Watch List “will encourage the Vietnamese government to take concrete steps to address longstanding religious freedom concerns.”

The commission recommended nine countries be added to the Special Watch List: Azerbaijan, Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Uzbekistan.

Additional action items urged

It also recommended the State Department designate seven “Entities of Particular Concern,” a designation reserved for nonstate actors that engage in particularly severe violations of religious freedom. They are Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, the Islamic State in Greater Sahara, the Islamic State in West Africa Province and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin.

The commission urged the State Department not to reissue waivers to sanctions based on other U.S. policy interests, pointing out those waivers have allowed Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikstan and Turkmenistan to escape penalties.

The commission also requested the Biden administration strengthen the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program, giving priority to “resettlement survivors of the most egregious forms of religious persecution.”

Commissioners issued an additional statement calling on the U.S. government to ban lobbying groups and law firms from representing the Chinese communist government and its interests.

“At the height of Cold War hostilities in 1980, it would have been unthinkable for any reputable firm to take on the Soviet Union as a client. And yet today, untold profits are being raked in by lobbyists willing to whitewash the record and aims of the Chinese Communist Party and government,” the commissioners stated. “It’s time to make this activity illegal.”

BENUE, Nigeria (BP)—More than 200 Christians have been killed in terrorist attacks in Benue and Kaduna states in Nigeria since the election season ended in March, according to news reports and statements from religious freedom advocates.

At least 74 people were killed in two separate attacks in Benue in April, including an attack on mourners at a Christian funeral that killed 46 individuals, Reuters reported April 8.

The deaths followed attacks in early March that killed 88 people, mostly women and children, in an internally displaced people camp in Benue, Christian Solidarity Worldwide stated.

In southern Kaduna, at least 33 people were killed in an April 15 attack, Channels Television reported, following two separate attacks that killed a total of 13 people in the state, CSW said.

The April Kaduna deaths followed the killing of 17 women and children in March, also in Kaduna, according to thisdaylive.com.

The villages in Benue and Kaduna are in the middle belt region of Nigeria where the majority Muslim north meets the majority Christian south, sparking violence along ethnoreligious lines.

Attacks prompt strong condemnation

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom—along with CSW and the United Nations Nigeria—joined Nigerian local community groups in strongly condemning the attacks.

“All Nigerians have the right to practice their faith and mourn their loved ones in peace and safety,” Commissioner Frederick A. Davie said April 20 of the funeral attack in Benue.

“This attack on a sacred, communal religious ceremony is atrocious and reprehensible. Armed actors in this region frequently show disdain for worshipers and government officials routinely fail to provide justice to faith communities targeted with violence.”

Many have accused the government of being slow to respond, sometimes only arriving after attacks have ended.

Kiri Kankhwende, CSW public affairs team leader, called the attacks “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.

“Recent statements from the UN and the presidency are important, but concerted and concrete action is essential to ensure that the Nigerian security forces are adequately resourced to combat the threats posed by these terrorist groups, and to protect vulnerable communities.

“The international community must assist in this regard wherever possible, including by holding the federal and state governments to account, should they continue failing to fulfil their duty towards citizens.”

Call for accountability

The Nigerian government, which will change hands with the May 29 inauguration of newly elected president Bola Tinubu, must be held accountable for the violence, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom noted.

“These incidents serve to further escalate tensions in a region where violence exacerbates ethnoreligious divides and erodes interfaith trust, threatening Nigerians’ freedom of religion or belief,” the commission stated.

“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 freedom.”

Commissioner Frank Wolf urged the U.S. government “to give higher priority to religious freedom in its Nigeria policy, at the bare minimum by naming Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern and appointing a special envoy to the region.”

The commission and others have advocated for the return of Nigeria to the U.S. Department of State’s CPC list, cited for “engaging in and tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of freedom of religion or belief.”

The Nigerian military killed at least 54 terrorists in various operations across the northeast, northcentral and northwest regions spanning two weeks in April, the Premium Times of Nigeria reported.

Several terrorist groups are active in the area, including Boko Haram, ISWAP and militant Fulani herdsmen, as well as bandits seeking ransom through kidnappings.

The military rescued 468 kidnapping victims and subdued at least 122 terrorists, bandits and other criminals in the operations. Additionally, at least 501 Boko Haram and ISWAP terrorists and their families, including 60 men and 176 women, surrendered to authorities.

Nigeria is among the deadliest countries for Christians, Open Doors has said in its annual World Watch List of the 50 countries most dangerous for Christians, based on several avenues of violence including killings. Nigeria ranks sixth on the 2023 list.

Voice of the Martyrs includes Nigeria among nations hostile to Christians in the VOM 2023 prayer guide.

Thanks to friends in Texas, 39 pastors in South Sudan now have bicycles to make regular visits to their multiple congregations.

Pastors in South Sudan often serve four to seven churches in an “expansive area and vast territory,” said Saphano Riak Chol, presiding moderator of Faith Evangelical Baptist Church in Juba.

“The Pastors Bicycle Transport Project has been concluded. All 39 bicycles have been procured, and 26 of them have been successfully delivered.”

The 13 remaining bicycles will be delivered “when the road conditions and security improve.”

Texas Baptist Men learned of the need in late 2022 and quickly responded with funds for the project. The South Sudan church purchased the bicycles in Kenya, and they are designed for the rugged roads and needs of the pastors.

“One of the most impactful actions of a pastor is to visit people,” said Rand Jenkins, senior director of advancement at TBM. “The bicycles TBM donors provided to the pastors in South Sudan will enable them to visit more people and change more lives in their communities.

“Mobility in South Sudan is difficult and expensive. Yet meeting with the communities in which a pastor serves is vital to Christian community. Giving these pastors a mode of transportation will help change lives in the region.”

Moderator Chol said the pastors are “highly grateful and are now getting to do the ministry effectively because they have the means now to reach the communities. We have many congregations with few pastors. … The bicycles have come in very handy.”

In the United States, “a bicycle is often a tool for a healthy hobby,” Jenkins said. “In South Sudan, it’s a vital means of daily life and transportation. Providing pastors in South Sudan with bicycles enables them to impact their community in greater and deeper ways.”

The project originated as a request through Baptist World Aid, one of TBM’s international partners.

“BWAid relates directly with indigenous Baptist groups around the world,” Jenkins said, “providing a connection with churches that often do not have other relationships with the United States.”

Support of the South Sudan project was an unanticipated ministry need, Jenkins said, “but when it surfaced we felt TBM supporters would like for us to step into this gap. Ongoing financial giving to TBM made this possible, and it is yet another means TBM has taken to promote the advance of Christ’s kingdom work.”

To financially support TBM, click here.

“Prayer support is also an important part of our TBM work,” Jenkins said. “I believe it is our ongoing commitment to prayer that brought this need to our awareness in the first place. It’s one of God’s great means of connecting his purposes with his resources.”

ANTAKYA, Turkey—A heart breaks as naturally as it loves. And traversing Antakya, Turkey, it crumbles like the buildings.

This once bustling city of 400,000 people now looks post-apocalyptic. Any structures not reduced to rubble by a February earthquake are leaning, cracked or both. More than 300,000 people became homeless in less than two minutes, with many of them leaving the city.

Six Texas Baptist Men volunteers came to this devastated landscape to put together simple shelters for families who had lost their homes to the earthquake.

The metal buildings provide safe places for families to live the next several years, empowering them to move out of cracked structures or flimsy tents.

These Quonset-hut-style, half-cylindrical shelters are being built in a place that feels like a scene out of a movie. Electricity is hard to come by, and water is even harder. Don’t even ask about sewage management.

Residents—often including children—scavenge through the rubble for scrap metal they can sell or reuse. Small emergency tents dot the city, giving a small source of protection for families. Long lines of people form daily for food and water distributions, as well as government support checks.

Begin with a basic need—provide shelter

In such a desperate situation, it’s hard to know where to begin offering relief and recovery. A TBM team started with the basics.

“Historically, Christians were first called Christians here in Antioch,” said Team Leader Robert Watson from First Baptist Church in Tyler. “They were called that because they were ‘little Christs.’ They were living out the teachings of Jesus. That’s what we want to do here.”

TBM volunteers, working alongside an in-country partner, fought supply-chain issues and used the trial-and-error method to devise a custom template for housing in this situation. The team outlined a system whereby the shelters, measuring 3 meters by 9 meters, can be crafted and installed faster by future volunteers.

TBM has provided funds for 20 homes in the city. That can’t meet the need of everyone here. No one team or one organization could. But the TBM team sought to do what it could.

“We’re trying to make an impact in individual homes and families,” said TBM team member Mike Gillert from First Baptist Church in Athens. “Hopefully it will make a difference for families, and they will know God loves them.”

The Turks certainly appreciated the team’s work. They pitched in to help where they could. They cleaned the lots for the houses and worked alongside the Texans where possible. Even children excitedly stepped in to hold tools and drive in stakes.

Using hand gestures and Google Translate, team members were able to communicate and connect with those they served. In many cases, the Turks wanted to know everything they could about these Texans who traveled around the globe to help them.

After building the homes, the teams gave some of the families water filters and boxes of food. Conversations led to opportunities to encourage people and pray with them.

“They’re just as interested in us as we are in them,” team member Chris Roberts from First Baptist Church in Tyler said. “They want to know where we’re from, why we’re doing this.”

The team was particularly affected by serving a woman in a wheelchair. After the earthquake, she was unable to return to her upstairs apartment and was living in a makeshift area in a cracked living room.

As soon as the team arrived, she rolled out to greet those who were helping her. She visited with most of the team and expressed her appreciation. She even wanted a photo with the team to remember them.

‘Building these homes for Jesus and his children’

At another home, 8-year-old Amen joined the crew to build his home in the rain. Seeing his excitement and energy spurred them along.

“That’s our job,” said team member Joe Fuller from The Heights Baptist Church in Richardson. “Jesus told us what we do for the least of these we do for him. As far as I’m concerned, we’re building these homes for Jesus and his children.”

Hugs and tears flowed upon the completion of each home. Families often offered coffee, tea and even small sweets from their small supplies.

“They’re thrilled,” Roberts said. “They’re overwhelmed. I’m honored to be able to help give them a place to rest their head, where they can get out of the weather.”

The experience transformed the team as well as the Turks. Instead of seeing Turkey simply in terms of political and religious stances, they met the Turks themselves and found it easy to identify things in common. Children want to play. Parents want to provide for them. They want what’s best for their families and their community.

“These are folks just like you and me who need help,” Roberts said. “I’m glad to see the human side of it. They’re just folks like us. We can help them.”

Hoisting Amen on his shoulders, team member R.L. Barnard from First Baptist Church in Duncanville couldn’t help but smile as the child waved a Turkey flag.

The road to recovery is long. But for the families these Texans served, it has started.

“I have a real soft spot for these people,” Barnard said. “And I always will.”

MARIUPOL, Ukraine (BP)—The Mariupol Baptist church where Trent Blackley last performed is rubble, the city hard hit by Russian military forces who have killed 8,500 Ukrainian civilians in the war on Ukraine.

“It was good that we got to Ukraine while we could,” said Blackley, director of the North Texas chapter of the Singing Men of Texas and lead vocalist and accompanying guitarist for the Texas Country Boys ensemble.

“One of the churches we were in was in Mariupol, and that’s the city that just got totally devastated, right on the sea of Azov. We’ve seen some before and after pictures of their worship center. It’s rubble now.”

Blackley was last in Mariupol in 2017 with the Texas Country Boys, which grew from the larger Singing Men of Texas. Blackley continues to minister to Ukrainian refugees, this time in a Singing Men of Texas concert tour of Poland April 17-28 with Southern Baptist evangelist Michael Gott and Gott’s wife Jan.

Gott last evangelized in Mariupol “just a few weeks before the Russians began attacking that city,” he told Baptist Press. “And we saw the very hall where we held the concert bombed or at least destroyed by the rockets, and now it’s all under the control of the Russians.”

It was “breathtaking” to see “how God gave us unique opportunities just before the curtain fell,” Gott added.

Founded in 1975 and composed primarily of Baptist ministers of music, the Singing Men of Texas have sung numerous times in Ukraine in partnership with Gott since 2010. England, Romania, Brazil, China and Spain are among the group’s international travels, in addition to concerts across the United States.

Blackley has kept in touch with Ukrainian pastors who have hosted performances there.

“So many of them, it’s every situation you can imagine. Some of them are there, and they’re leading their communities to respond to people’s needs in the community,” Blackley said of the pastors.

“And then there are others—a lot of the younger ones—that have gone to Poland, and they’re working there in ministry, or some that we know of that are in Texas. So we’ve been able to keep up with them, mostly through social media.”

Perform concerts, proclaim the gospel

The 90-member North Central chapter of the Singing Men, the largest chapter in the state, will take a group of 113 on the Poland tour, including wives. The men will sing most songs in English, with Ukrainian and Polish subtitles.

Gott will preach brief evangelistic messages translated in Polish at the end of each concert and distribute more than 1,000 Polish New Testaments with the Psalms donated by the Eastern European Mission.

Eastern European Mission distributed 2 million Bibles in Eastern and Central Europe in 2022, the group’s president Bob Burckle said, continuing its ministry that began in 1961 by smuggling Bibles and other Christian materials to the Soviet Union.

“Our mission statement is, ‘The Bible, we want everyone to get it,’” Burckle said. “And there’s a double meaning in the English language. We physically want to get the Bible into people’s hands. … You read it and you get it in your head, and then from the head, you get it in your heart.”

Thousands have written professions of faith at Singing Men of Texas and Gott outreach events, Blackley and Gott both noted.

“What we’ve found is music is just a very powerful tool to bind our hearts with other people,” Blackley said. “The fact that we come in and rent a hall there in their city, and they can come and enjoy a great concert in one of the finest music halls in their town, seems to be very attractive to them.

“Because of the experiences we’ve had over these last 12 or 13 years, we’ve seen God move in a really powerful way when we’ve combined our music with a simple gospel message from Michael Gott,” Blackley said.

“And that’s really been kind of the catalyst for everything we’ve done, even stateside. We’ve had great response from guys who want to see God at work.”

“House of the Lord,” “Jesus Brought Me Out,” Swing Down Sweet Chariot,” and “Sing the Story” are among a repertoire the group will sing, including various genres of Christian music.

In Lodz, the last concert on the Poland tour, the group will sing in a choral festival including several local choirs. The program will include “Agnus Dei,” the lone song the Singing Men will present in the Polish language.

“I think perhaps it’s easier to sing it than to speak it,” Blackley said.

Uneasy but open to the gospel

Blackley was in Poland in October 2022 with the Texas Country Boys. He found refugees in various states of recovery.

“Those that had kind of landed on their feet and had connections there within Poland, they were in good spirits and taken care of,” Blackley said. “And those who came across with nothing, not knowing anyone, they were still trying to figure things out.”

Many in Poland remain uneasy about the war.

“From the Polish people … there was just a very uneasy feeling, because they hoped that they weren’t the next to incur some wrath from (Russian President Vladimir) Putin,” Blackley said. “But I do believe that that made them extra open to the gospel message.”

The Gotts arrived in Poland in advance of the tour to handle logistical details. There, they met many Ukrainian refugees.

“Some of these people are just a step away from breaking into tears because they are living with incredible stress,” Gott said.

He and Jan met a Ukrainian mother and wife who worked as a server in a restaurant, sending money back to family members in Ukraine where her father, brother and a cousin are fighting in the war.

The Gotts met an attorney with four children whose husband visits her monthly from Ukraine, where he’s in the armed forces. In Poland, the mother and her children live in a two-bedroom apartment.

“We wanted to see this apartment for ourselves to understand the stress these people are living under,” Gott said. “And yet, I want to tell you without any apology, that the Polish people have gone out of their way to help Ukrainians, and they’ve given them every benefit.”

Blackley solicits prayers for the success of the ministry.

“We’re thankful for people all across Texas and across the United States that join us in prayer, as we sing to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in music and spoken word,” he said.

Police raided an unregistered Baptist church in southern Uzbekistan during a worship service and detained 10 worshippers after beating and using electric shock prods on some individuals, the Forum 18 human rights organization reported.

Uniformed officers reportedly stormed the Council of Churches Baptist congregation in Karshi during Sunday morning worship services on April 9, when Western Christians observed Easter and one week before Orthodox Easter.

In an April 17 email, Alan Donaldson, general secretary of the European Baptist Federation, stated a contact in Uzbekistan was “not aware of attacks on any Baptist church” but noted reports of an attack on a separatist or secessionist church.

German Baptist musicians visiting

Forum 18 reported officials who arrived during the April 9 service in Karshi identified themselves as representatives of the local district committee, saying they were acting in accordance with a circular from the Religious Affairs Committee and the Culture Ministry prohibiting events involving foreign groups.

Church members said the raid followed the congregation’s unsuccessful attempts to rent local halls for Easter presentations featuring visiting Baptist musicians from Germany. The German Baptist musicians were singing at the church when the police stormed the sanctuary.

Forum 18 reported police “brutally beat” some church members and “also used electric shock prods and other implements to incapacitate the brothers and sisters,” while fellow worshippers wept and prayed.

“Local Baptists said 10 church members, including young people were taken to the police station. Video images show police officers holding one church member … [a]round the neck as he was on the ground and as they put him in a police van,” Forum 18 reported.

Police officials refused to answer any questions when contacted by the Norway-based human rights organization.

The day after the raid in Karshi, police also raided a Council of Churches Baptist congregation in Denov, in Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya region, that also featured the German Baptist musicians, Forum 18 reported.

“They said the meeting was illegal and forcibly dispersed those present,” the human rights organization stated.

Last year, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the Department of State include Uzbekistan to its Special Watch List “for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act,” but the State Department did not follow that recommendation.

The Easter promise of new life holds special meaning for members of a persecuted Chinese church who arrived in Texas on Good Friday, in preparation for resettlement with the help of Tyler-area churches. 0

Members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church—nicknamed the “Mayflower Church” for their commitment to seeking religious freedom—arrived Friday evening at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport.

‘A Good Friday miracle’

“It was a Good Friday miracle,” said Randel Everett, founding president of 21Wilberforce, a human rights organization focused on international religious freedom.

Representatives from advocacy groups and about three dozen members of Texas churches greeted more than 60 Chinese Christians with balloons and banners, welcoming them to the United States.

Rushad Hussain, ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom with the U.S. Department of State, joined in that celebration, telling the Chinese Christians, “It is wonderful to welcome you.”

Fleeing persecution and harassment in China, members of the Mayflower Church first sought refuge in South Korea. When they were denied asylum there, they relocated to Thailand on tourist visas. After their visas expired, the Thai government declined to renew them unless members of the church reported to the Chinese Embassy.

One week before the Chinese Christians arrived on U.S. soil, they appeared at a deportation hearing in Thailand. At that time, they feared they immediately would be sent back to China, where they likely would have been imprisoned.

“Pastor Pan [Yongguang of the Mayflower Church] said the Hebrew people wandered for 40 years. The Mayflower Church has wandered for three years and 10 months. Eight children have been born while they were in exile,” said Everett, former executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

“One week ago, they were all in prison—men, women and children. Now, thanks to the grace of God and a coalition of churches, NGOs, and the U.S. State Department, the Mayflower Church resides in a nation where they are free to practice their faith without fear of retribution.”

Two East Texans initially detained

Deana Brown, founder and CEO of Tyler-based Freedom Seekers International, initially was detained along with members of the Mayflower Church in the hours surrounding their deportation hearing.

She and Stacy Nichols, a member of Flint Baptist Church near Tyler, left Texas on March 29 as part of FSI’s goodwill ambassador program to encourage members of Mayflower Church while they were in Thailand.

“We left expecting to visit with them, and I had the privilege of coming back home with them,” said Brown, a former Southern Baptist missionary.

Brown recalled being awakened at 11:30 p.m. on March 30 in Pattaya, Thailand, by a knock on the door and someone announcing, “Thai immigration is here.”

Brown, Nichols and members of the Mayflower Church—including one woman who was more than eight months pregnant—were detained overnight before the scheduled deportation hearing the next day.

“Everybody walked out with the clothes on their backs,” Brown said.

In the hours prior to the hearing, everyone who was detained was provided with food and water, and they were allowed to go to the restroom as needed.

“The Thai government and the officials were just doing their job,” Brown said. “If Stacy and I had insisted, we probably would have been allowed to leave. But we wanted to be there with them.”

Emotional highs and lows

Brown and Nichols were not allowed to enter the room where the March 31 hearing occurred, but she recalled the relief everyone felt when the adult members of the Mayflower Church left the courtroom.

“They came out happy and smiling,” she recalled.

The adults members of the Mayflower Church were fined for overstaying their visas. Initially they believed they were free and would be transported back to the hotel where they had been staying in Pattaya.

Instead, the two busses left the city and headed toward Bangkok. Members of the church feared they were being taken to the airport for immediate deportation to China.

However, they received assurances they were being transported to immigration detention centers. Four dozen women and children were held in one location, and the men were held in another location with other detainees.

Pastor Pan Yongguang from the Mayflower Church reported the men held worship services twice a day during their confinement and were able to share the gospel with other men who were detained with them—including two who professed faith in Christ.

Together with a representative from ChinaAid, Brown and Nichols were able to deliver diapers, diarrhea medication, ointment for insect bites, bottled water and changes of clothing to members of the church while they were detained.

Meanwhile, they remained in close contact with Adam Zerbinopoulos from the U.S. Embassy in Thailand and Alex Sonsev, a lawyer who represented the Mayflower Church members.

“We knew things were rattling, and conversations were happening at high levels,” Brown said.

She believes the presence of two Americans who initially were detained alongside the Chinese Christians pushed the plight of the Mayflower Church over the “imminent threat threshold” required for refugees to be admitted to the United States.

Mayflower Church members had been seeking refugee status from the United Nations, and each was issued “refugee-seeker” identification. As of February, only two of the 16 families in the church had been granted a second refugee determination interview with the U.N.

‘All due to the grace of God’

Within a matter of days after their deportation hearing, the Chinese Christians received news they would be allowed to enter the United States. Brown said she understands they have been granted Priority-1 visas with the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

“How great is our God, that he would send two Americans to Thailand at just the right time. It is just all due to the grace of God,” Brown said.

Brown and Nichols hastily traveled from Bangkok to Pattaya, where they went to all the hotel rooms previously occupied by the Chinese Christians. They packed a suitcase for each of the Mayflower Church members, filling the bags with personal possessions they believed would be meaningful to them.

Once their flights arrived at DFW International Airport, members of the Mayflower Church spent the night in the Dallas area before being transported to East Texas, where they are being housed.

Several churches invited the Mayflower Church members to join them for Easter Sunday, but Brown said, “Everyone decided it was best on their first Sunday here to let them worship by themselves.”

In the months ahead, FSI will work with Tyler-area churches to help members of the church with English-as-a-Second-Language classes, job training, transportation and other resettlement issues.

“We’ve had people offer toys for the children and other supplies, but the real need now is financial,” Brown said, noting donors can give to a special account for the Mayflower Church by clicking here.

Bob Fu, founding president of Midland-based ChinaAid, reflected on the drastic change in the circumstances within a single week for the Chinese Christians, saying it was “truly a Good Friday” for members of the Mayflower Church.

“Barely a week ago, members of the Mayflower [Church] were still incarcerated in a jail, facing imminent danger of [Chinese Community Party] kidnapping threats. Now, they are safe and free,” Fu said.

Bipartisan international effort

ChinaAid, along with advocates from 21Wilberforce and Freedom Seekers International, had been mobilizing Christians to contact elected officials in Washington, D.C., on behalf of the persecuted Chinese church.

“This is a successful example of nonpartisan, international cooperation,” said Chad Bullard, CEO of ChinaAid.

He particularly applauded members of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the office of international religious freedom within the U.S. Department of State, along with Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, and Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J.

He expressed appreciation to Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.; Rep. Nathaniel Moran, R-Texas; and Rep. August Pfluger, R-Texas; along with former Rep. Frank Wolf. He also thanked Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida.

The international effort to relocate the Mayflower Church members involved the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights; the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, both in Thailand and Washington; the U.S. Mission to Geneva; the International Religious Freedom Alliance, led by Fiona Bruce, member of Parliament in the United Kingdom and the British prime minister’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief; Lord David Alton from the U.K.; and Sam Brownback and Katrina Lantos Swett, co-chairs of the 2023 International Religious Freedom Summit, he noted.

“ChinaAid is truly honored to be part of this miracle,” Bullard said.