On Good Friday, the international community learned a Burmese court sentenced the former president of the Kachin Baptist Convention to six years in prison.

A court in Myitkyina sentenced Pastor Hkalam Samson—an outspoken proponent of religious freedom for ethnic minorities in Myanmar—on charges of unlawful association, defaming the state and terrorism.

Samson, chairman of the Kachin National Consultative Assembly and critic of human rights abuses by the ruling Burmese military, was arrested on Dec. 5, 2022, at the Mandalay International Airport. At the time he was attempting to travel to Bangkok, reportedly for a medical procedure. He has been held in prison since his arrest.

‘A grave injustice’

“Pastor Samson’s sentencing is a grave injustice, amplified on the very weekend Christians around the world gather to declare our faith in Jesus. Yet in this dark moment, let every church pray for Pastor Samson on this Sunday, and let each one of us lift our voice in Easter hope that Jesus still transforms unjust imprisonment into new life,” said Elijah Brown, general secretary and CEO of the Baptist World Alliance.

Samson was president of the Kachin Baptist Convention from 2018 to 2022, and he previously served two terms as the convention’s general secretary, from 2010 to 2018.

In April 2021, two months after the military coup in Myanmar, Samson joined in issuing a call for global prayer and advocacy on behalf of the nation.

“What a tragic development to learn on Good Friday that Dr. Samson has been sentenced to six years in prison. Dr. Samson is a key leader of Baptists in Myanmar and throughout the Baptist World Alliance,” said Randel Everett, founding president of 21Wilberforce, a human rights organization focused on international religious freedom.

“He is a courageous man of peace who has spoken out against Myanmar’s illegal regime. Global Christians should encourage their nations to ask for the immediate release of Dr. Samson.”

Samson has traveled internationally to advocate for peace and religious freedom in Myanmar, including a meeting at the White House in conjunction with the 2019 International Religious Freedom Ministerial.

He also met senior members of the British Parliament and other governmental officials during a November 2018 trip to London.

‘An outrageous travesty of justice’

“This sentence is an outrageous travesty of justice,” said Benedict Rogers, Chrisitian Solidarity International’s senior analyst for East Asia.

Rogers characterized Samson as “a completely nonviolent Christian pastor and a brave and tireless advocate for justice, human rights and peace.”

“He has been jailed simply for courageously speaking out against the Myanmar military’s barbaric atrocities perpetrated against the people of Myanmar,” Rogers said.

“The international community must speak out strongly to demand his immediate release from prison and intensify efforts to apply targeted sanctions against Myanmar’s illegal military regime until all political prisoners are freed, the military ceases all attacks in the ethnic states and Myanmar is placed on a path of genuine federal democracy.”

Authorities in Thailand fined but did not immediately deport members of a persecuted Chinese church, but the Christians continue to be detained three days after their deportation hearing.

Members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church—nicknamed the “Mayflower Church” for their commitment to religious freedom—were arrested March 30 and faced deportation hearings the next day.

Fleeing persecution and harassment in their native country, the Chinese Christians first sought refuge in South Korea. When they were denied asylum there, they relocated to Thailand on tourist visas. However, when their visas expired, the Thai government refused to renew them unless members of the church reported to the Chinese Embassy.

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

The initial report from the March 31 deportation hearing appeared encouraging.

Deana Brown, founding CEO of Freedom Seekers International in Tyler, was not permitted in the hearing room in Pattaya, but she saw members of the church as they were exiting.

“When I walked up, they were all smiling and happy,” she wrote in a March 31 email. Freedom Seekers International has been enlisting East Texas congregations to sponsor resettlement of Mayflower Church members.

After the adult members of the church were fined, they initially understood they would be transported by bus back to the hotel where they had been staying, Brown said.

Continued detention

When the drivers of the two buses did not take a direct route to the hotel, church members feared they were being driven to the airport to be sent to China. Instead, they were taken to an immigration detention center.

Two Americans who had been assisting members of the Mayflower Church briefly were detained but had not been placed under arrest, according to an Associated Press report.

About four dozen children and women from the church—including one pregnant woman who is due to give birth in two weeks—are being held in one location. The men from the Mayflower Church—numbering 16 or 17—are being held in a single cell with more than 30 other detained individuals in Bangkok at a detention center, Bob Fu of Midland-based ChinaAid reported in an April 1 email.

In a follow-up email to Randel Everett of the 21Wilberforce human rights organization on April 3, Fu said the detained Christians “are in good spirits,” aside from some sickness and insect bites.

“But they hold praise and worship services twice a day inside the prison like [biblical figures] Daniel, Paul and Silas,” Fu wrote.

“Our American team members and the U.S. Embassy had brought basic supplies, including Bibles, and were able to deliver to the Mayflower [Church members] in the detention cells. [The] U.S. government is watching very closely for Mayflower members. Our team and U.S. Embassy are assessing the situation moment by moment. Pray for wisdom and discernment.”

In an email to Brown, the church’s pastor wrote he and the other men in detention were living a “difficult and joyful life” in captivity, worshipping together each morning and evening.

“The gospel was preached to 17 Chinese people, and they were all willing to listen,” he wrote. “There are two young Chinese who have decided to believe in the Lord, joined our worship, sang hymns, read Scriptures, and prayed with us.

“We also evangelized the Burmese through translators, and they were willing to listen.  We share part of the food with everyone. The Spirit of the Lord filled us and greatly blessed every soul in the cell.  All achieved more than I could have imagined.  The name of the Lord is victorious and glorified.”

Brown noted FSI has been able to take diapers and baby formula to the detained women from the Mayflower Church, They also have delivered diarrhea medication, ointment for insect bites, water and changes of clothing to both the men and women.

This article originally was posted about 1:30 p.m. on April 3. It was updated at 2:20 p.m. on April 4 to include additional information included in the last four paragraphs.

Chinese Christians who have been living in Thailand after fleeing persecution in their native country have been arrested, and they face a March 31 hearing that could result in their deportation and near-certain imprisonment in China.

The 21Wilberforce human rights and religious liberty organization is calling for the U.S. Department of State and other federal officials to intervene.

At about 11 a.m. on March 30, more than 20 Thai Immigration Police raided the hotel where members of the Shenzhen Holy Reformed Church—better known as the “Mayflower Church” for their commitment to seeking religious freedom—were staying.

All 63 members of the church were arrested, taken to an immigration detention center in Thailand and told they face immediate detention proceedings, Randel Everett, founding president of the 21Wilberforce human rights organization wrote in a March 30 email.

“At this point in these brave folks’ journey, should they be returned to China, it is an almost certain prison sentence for most, if not all, of these fellow believers,” Everett wrote.

“The U.S. Embassy in Bangkok communicated to the church’s pastor that tonight the Thai government will transport all the church members to Bangkok Immigration Court for a deportation hearing tomorrow.”

Nary Turkel, chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, confirmed members of the Mayflower Church “are at imminent risk of deportation to China, where they will suffer severe consequences, including imprisonment and torture.”

Urgent action needed

Everett, former executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, urged Texas Baptists to pray and to contact Sen. John Cornyn.

21Wilberforce is asking Cornyn to appeal immediately to Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the State Department Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration on behalf of the Mayflower Church.

The email addresses for Cornyn’s key staff are stephen_tausend@cornyn.senate.govand drew_brandewie@cornyn.senate.gov. The phone number for his Washington, D.C., office is (202) 224-2934. Contact information for his seven regional Texas offices can be found here.

21Wilberforce is asking that the Chinese Christians either be granted resettlement in the United States through humanitarian parole, or that the U.S. government provide them a means of temporary resettlement in another country.

Abraham Cooper, vice chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, joined in the call for “the U.S. government to use all feasible tools at its disposal to ensure Mayflower Church members’ safety.”

Freedom Seekers International, based in Tyler, has been enlisting East Texas congregations to sponsor the resettlement of Mayflower Church members. Midland-based ChinaAid has provided assistance to the Chinese Christians while they have been living in Thailand.

Members of the Shezhen Holy Reformed Church originally sought refuge in South Korea. After being denied asylum there, they relocated to Thailand on tourist visas, but the Thai government refused to renew their visas.

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

Texas Baptist Men volunteers will journey to Turkey the first week in April to help build shelters for families who lost their homes in the Feb. 6 earthquake.

TBM crews plan to build 50 family shelters in Turkey with faith-based partners. They are expected to build four to six a day.

The shelters come in two sizes and are smaller versions of a Quonset hut, with a semi-cylindrical shape. The large shelters are about 193 square feet and can house up to 14 people. The small ones are about half the size and can house families of fewer than five people.

“Please pray for these volunteers as they work in Turkey,” said Rupert Robbins, associate director of TBM Disaster Relief. “And pray that God will raise up the funds and volunteers needed to build more of these shelters as we work to share the love of Jesus in a very tangible way.”

Next phase of TBM ministry in Turkey

The housing initiative marks the next phase in TBM’s continuing ministry in Turkey after the devastating February earthquake.

“It’s hard for people to comprehend the level of disaster based on what they’ve seen in the news,” said Mitch Chapman, director of TBM Water Impact.

Chapman traveled to Turkey to deliver two community water filtration systems and to build eight more with local parts.

“The geographical breadth of this was so amazing,” Chapman said. “You could drive for six hours and still be in the midst of destruction.”

Imagine a 70-mile-wide swath of land from Houston to Oklahoma City. “There would be ground zeroes all throughout that area,” he said.

The night of the first quake, Feb. 6, about 30 percent to 50 percent of buildings collapsed, Chapman said. Later, authorities condemned another 30 percent.

The great loss of life staggered the imagination. “There was no one you met who hadn’t lost someone they loved,” he said.

In the days after the earthquake, TBM Water Impact built and installed two four-stage filtration systems in the area and helped locals build and install another eight systems. The first two stages removed sediment, a charcoal stage improved the taste and an ultraviolet filter killed any remaining bacteria.

“The water has to be crystal clear before it gets to the UV stage for it to work properly,” Chapman said.

The 10 four-stage systems provided water in the kitchens serving tent cities. Workers cooked two meals a day with the clean water, and the people also brought jugs to the kitchen to be filled for drinking in their tents.

Praying ‘God will open up doors’

TBM Water Impact leaders are shaping the next wave of response. Homeless residents are expected to be gradually moved into temporary housing with each unit having its own kitchen, Chapman said.

“My prayer is that God will open up doors for us to put a bucket filter in every temporary housing unit,” Chapman said.

The original filters built in Texas, transported to Turkey and refitted with local parts cost about $4,000 each. The community-serving filters built in Turkey cost about $800 each. Bucket filters for individual households would cost about $40 each.

“There was much we didn’t know at the beginning,” Chapman said. “We needed to respond quickly, and that’s exactly what we did. Over the past few weeks, we have learned a great deal, and the situation is slowly but steadily improving.”

NASHVILLE (BP)—A former Russian Baptist union leader, speaking from Moscow, voiced an apology for his countrymen who are “participants in this crime against Ukraine.”

“Ukrainians, we’re with you,” pastor Yuri Sipko, president of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists in Russia from 2002-2010, said through a translator in an online prayer forum at the one-year mark of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

‘We believe in your victory’

“We pray for you. And we believe in your victory,” said Sipko, one of several speakers during the conference organized by Mission Eurasia, an evangelical ministry in 13 former Soviet republics and in Israel.

The ministry’s Ukrainian offices near Kyiv were destroyed in a tank battle during the early weeks of the war.

“365 days and 365 nights, there are bombs exploding,” Sipko lamented. “Buildings collapsing. Electricity going out. No water. No heat. This is what millions of Ukrainians are going through today.

“We continue to pray constantly for the Lord to stop this bloodbath. We pray for God to protect Ukraine and the Ukrainian people,” said Sipko, who also was a Baptist World Alliance vice president from 2005 to 2010. Before his election as the Russian union’s president, he had been its vice president eight years.

“You have shown, my brothers, how much courage, how much strength you have, how much belief in freedom, and the ability you have to resist this transgression. This is an incredible example of courageous Christianity,” Sipko said during the Feb. 23 gathering, posted online by Mission Eurasia on March 9.

Prayer for an end to killing

Sipko prayed: “We call upon you, the God of love, from this suffering earth. Lord, please stop this horrible, hateful operation. Please give wisdom to the military commanders—to soldiers and officers. Give them the fear to stop killing. With the hands of your angels, please stop the tanks, stop the rockets and cannons so that not a single more human life is being taken.”

He interceded for “all the people who have to flee from Ukraine. All the elderly, all the women, please protect them with your hand.”

He prayed for “the strength and courage to continue to resist” for the Ukrainian people “and all the people of good will around the world.”

“Please continue to bless the Ukrainian churches to let them continue spreading and preaching the word of your gospel.”

Points to ‘lies’ by Russian government

Sipko, in his comments, noted, “For over 10 years, the Russian government has been slandering people with lies, calling the Ukrainian people ‘Nazis’ and enemies.

“This poisonous hatred has spread in our society and poisoned the minds of people. And as a result, the military force—tanks and rockets—have descended upon the Ukrainian people.

“Inside our country the government persecutes any attempts to express free thought,” Sipko said. “Over 6,000 criminal cases have been opened for slandering the military in Russia. Today, you can be criminally prosecuted and go to prison for saying such words as ‘peace’ or speaking out against the war.”

He added that “special classes” are being taught in schools and universities “where people are being taught how to hate.”

Sipko’s outspokenness is not surprising. He was described as “a gifted, charismatic preacher and communicator … noted for his often temperamental and courageous statements on government and society” in a news report by the Moscow-based Christian Inter-Confessional Advisory Committee upon the election of his successor in 2010. The committee encompasses 22 member bodies ranging from Baptists, Roman Catholics and Lutherans to Seventh-day Adventists.

‘A year of God’s presence’

Also addressing Mission Eurasia’s online conference was Igor Bandura, senior vice president of Ukraine’s Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.

“This year was a year of pain, loss, uncertainty, fears, but at the same time it was a year of God’s presence (and) his blessings in a very unique and special way during the turmoil of the war,” Bandura said.

The Holy Spirit has been “working powerfully and giving us strength and courage, leading us, and making us able to make quick and important decisions during the war,” he said.

Churches have been “key agents of God’s work,” Bandura continued. “From the very beginning of the war, the local churches became the most organized groups of people when the entire country was in chaos and no one knew what to do.

“Churches helped people to evacuate, churches met people on the way and (sought to) accommodate them and help them. Churches helped people to cross the border and churches were the first group of people who met people on the other side of the border,” Bandura said.

The Baptist union envisions every church as “a center of ‘heat and hope,’” he said, “where people can come during the winter and find heat (and) warmth, but they can also find fellowship, find prayer, encouragement, and listen about God (and) the Gospel.”

In most every church, Bandura noted, “at least half of the church members are not there. They left. But the church buildings are filled with people. People are coming and it changed the way we preach the gospel, it changed our strategy of pastoral care, it changed our approach to midweek meetings and services. Our churches are different. What is good—they are faithful to God. They stay faithful to their calling and they serve people where they are.”

Fifty-plus Baptist union churches have been destroyed or damaged in Ukrainian territory, he said. Yet, they have found new places to meet and nearly 70 new pastors have been ordained.

Overall, 3,000 people have been baptized during the last six months, with the Baptist union’s churches drawing about 25,000 visitors every Sunday.

“Sharing with you our troubles but even more our blessings, we invite you to stay with Ukraine in your prayers and practical support and plan your participation (in Ukraine’s recovery),” Bandura told the online participants.

Oleksandr Zaiets, president of the Institute for Religious Freedom in Kiev, reported nearly 500 churches of various religious bodies have been destroyed or damaged by Russian shelling across Ukraine. And hundreds of churches are in the territories occupied by Russian forces.

“The enemy expected that the people in Ukraine and the people in the United States and the free world would get tired and surrender,” Zaiets said.

But Zaiets recalled the biblical admonition to “pray without ceasing” and “not give up in your spirit.”

Mission Eurasia, with offices in Franklin, Tenn., and Wheaton, Ill., was founded in 1991 after the fall of the Soviet Union. It engages in training for emerging Christian leaders across the region, along with children’s ministry, literature distribution and humanitarian aid.

Art Toalston is a Nashville-based writer and a former editor of Baptist Press.

WASHINGTON (BP)—Russia has amplified its persecution of Christians, Muslims and Jews in its war on Ukraine, destroying churches and murdering, torturing and imprisoning many pastors and advocates, participants in a U.S. government hearing said March 15.

Panelists decried and called for punishment of Russia’s war crimes explored in “Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: Implications for Religious Freedom,” a virtual hearing hosted by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

Russia murdered at least 26 religious leaders, tortured others and imprisoned many, and it heavily damaged or destroyed at least 500 churches and other religious places of worship, said panelist Dmytro Vovk, an expert on religious freedom with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights.

The Russian Orthodox Church has suffered persecution while widely cooperating with and supporting Russia in the war, Vovk said. He described about a third of church buildings decimated as Russian Orthodox congregations. The Russian Orthodox Church is comprised of thousands of congregations in Ukraine that describe themselves as independent of Russia.

Before the war, Ukraine and Russia operated with polarly opposite religious landscapes. While Ukraine’s religious freedom protections are among the most liberal in the region, “Russia has managed to create a very restrictive religious framework,” Vovk said, “with one religion, the Russian Orthodox Church, being strongly endorsed and mainly just religious minorities being severely discriminated against and oppressed.”

But the war has even increased religious persecution within Russia that was already rampant, panelist Rachel Denber of Human Rights Watch said, with efforts to annihilate civil society related to religious persecution.

“At home, the Kremlin has been trying to decimate what had been a robust and civil society and laid to waste key fundamental freedoms,” said Denber, deputy director of the Human Rights Watch Europe and Central Asia Division.

“The muzzling of Russian citizens did not emerge in a vacuum, but it is the result of a decade of step-by-step repression that started in 2012 and that accelerated in critical moments—in 2014 when Russia’s war against Ukraine actually started (the annexation of the Crimean Peninsula from Ukraine), in 2018 and in 2020 this repression at home escalated … and then, of course, with the full-scale invasion in 2022.

“Russian public life is unrecognizable as compared to even 18 months ago, when authoritarian autocracy was already deeply entrenched.”

Repression forced many to flee Russia

Russia’s homeland repression has forced many to flee, including foreign media outlets and public rights groups. About 74 foreign groups have been blacklisted as undesirable through Russian law and about a third of the American donor groups and think tanks, including the National Democratic Institute and the International Republican Institute.

Panelist Pinchas Goldschmidt, chief rabbi and president of the Conference of European Rabbis and exiled chief rabbi of Moscow, has urged the Jewish community to flee Russia.

At least 11 rabbis have been expelled from Russia, leaving synagogues and communities without leaders, and about 30 percent of the Jewish population of Russia has fled, Goldschmidt said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s government is increasingly authoritarian and nearly totalitarian, Goldschmidt said, describing the climate as more and more dangerous.

Dennis Christensen, a Jehovah’s Witness leader who was imprisoned six years for his faith in Russia, said the country makes a mockery of justice. When it was widely reported he was paroled in 2019, he said, he remained imprisoned for the remainder of his term.

Russia’s penal system works on “breaking a person down,” he said. “You were no longer a human being. You were a prisoner.”

Hundreds of Tatar Muslims have been imprisoned since Russia gained control of Crimea in 2014, according to the written testimony of a Crimean Tatar activist who was unable to attend the hearing. About 96 remained imprisoned, many have been tortured, and one has died in incarceration, according to the written testimony.

Russian victory equals less religious freedom

If Russia wins its war against Ukraine, it will continue to erode religious liberty in Ukraine and establish there the near authoritarian control Putin demands in Russia, panelists said.

USCIRF members on the panel included Chair Nury Turkel; vice chair Abraham Cooper, Commissioners Sharon Kleinbaum, David Curry and Frederick Davie.

U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker of Mississippi called Russia one of the world’s worst violators of religious freedom and said Russia wants to return to the previous empire of the USSR.

“Allowing these actions to go unchallenged would give this dictator a green light to escalate his repression,” Wicker said in pre-recorded remarks. “The Kremlin’s renewed all-out assault on Ukraine reveals Putin’s goals. He wants to go back to the old Soviet empire by any means necessary.

“He has framed the war in religious terms,” Wicker said of Putin, “and set his own people against Ukraine. … Despite the Kremlin’s claims, it is Russia’s forces who have kidnapped, tortured and killed religious leaders and destroyed places of worship.”

India’s anti-conversion laws violate international human rights standards and worsen already-poor religious freedom conditions in India, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom stated.

“India’s state-level anti-conversion laws violate international human rights law’s protections for the right to freedom of religion or belief,” the commission concluded in a report issued March 14.

Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, worship and observance.”

India’s laws “impermissibly limit and punish an individual’s right to convert and right to persuade or support another individual to convert voluntarily,” the commission report states.

Anti-conversion laws “enable and embolden existing government harassment, vigilante violence, and discrimination against religious minorities, as well as crackdowns on civil society organizations,” the report notes.

“Issue Update: India’s State-level Anti-conversion Laws” reports 12 of India’s 28 states have legislation that criminalizes religious conversions: Arunachal Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh.

“An increasingly common feature of India’s state-level anti-conversion laws are provisions aimed at preventing so-called ‘Love Jihads,’ a derogatory term for conversions occurring in the context of interfaith marriages,” the report states.

Anti-conversion laws in 10 Indian states require individuals who intend to convert, individuals involved in the conversion plan of someone else, or both, to notify the government.

For example, the anti-conversion law in Karnataka State required the district magistrate, once notified of an individual’s intent to convert, to issue a public call for any objections to the conversion. If an objection is lodged, it triggers an official government investigation.

If the conversion is found to violate any provision of the state’s Protection of Right to Freedom of Religion Act, the matter is referred to police to initiate criminal action.

Seven Indian states provide that the burden of proof for violations of anti-conversion laws lies on the person who is accused, even though international human rights law prohibit the presumption of guilt for accused individuals.

“Repealing India’s state-level anti-conversion laws is necessary to comply with international human rights law for the right to freedom of religion or belief and to help prevent the country’s religious freedom conditions from further deteriorating,” the commission report concludes.

In its 2022 annual report, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended the U.S. Department of State designate India as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.

ODESSA, Ukraine (BP)—Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine has added more children to an initial count of 100,000 Ukrainian orphans at greater risk of abduction, sex trafficking, criminal adoption and long-term trauma, a leader in Ukrainian orphan care said.

Ukraine released about 40,000 orphans from specialized boarding schools as the war began and has lost track of an estimated 25,000 orphans who are no longer in the country, said Rick Morton, vice president of engagement for Lifeline Children’s Services.

“We know that these kids are the most vulnerable to being enslaved, to being trafficked, to being moved into the child sex trade, all of those things, and that was a peril that existed before the war,” Morton said.

“Twenty-five thousand kids by the conventional estimates, nobody in any position of authority seems to understand where they are. In the chaos of the war, undocumented children are the easiest prey for those that would victimize children.”

Morton is not aware of any credible counts indicating the number of children newly orphaned in the war—above the initial 100,000—now in its 13th month.

“Subjectively, I don’t know of anything that really gives a hard number or gives much data to that,” he said. “I think subjectively what we have heard from people on the ground … is that many of the orphanages that were not evacuated were what Ukraine would call baby houses” that ministered to children birth to 2 years old.

“Those houses have continued to swell in population in many places, while the number of workers has continued to drop,” he added.

“I know the Ukrainian government’s doing all that they can within the scope of things, but those orphanages are benefitting from ministries like ours, Send Relief and others, that are taking food, that are taking supplies into them. But the situation continues to be more critical, because there are children being added.”

Morton points to reports, supported by the U.S. government, that Russia essentially kidnapped 6,000 children to be placed for adoption in Russia, regardless of the status of their parents.

Yale University researchers have identified at least 43 camps and other facilities where Ukrainian children have been held since Russia’s invasion began, according to the report from the Conflict Observatory, an NGO that is tracking evidence of Russian war crimes.

More than 8,100 civilian deaths in Ukraine

At least 8,173 civilians had been killed and more than 13,600 had been injured in Ukraine through March 6, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said.

Military casualty estimates vary widely, with Forbes magazine reporting about 13,440 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed on military tanks through February, not including those killed among dismounted troops.

Among Lifeline’s partners are Southern Baptist Send Relief, the Regen Foundation, Heritage Ukraine and the Romania Without Orphans Alliance. In Odessa, Heritage Ukraine leaders originally fled heavy missile attacks and began serving orphans through the Regen Foundation in Romania, Morgan said.

But Heritage Ukraine directors Slavik and Alyona Puzanov, after wrestling with their proximity to the need, have since returned to help orphans still in Odessa.

“Where they fled the war in the beginning, believing that was the right thing to do for them and their family, they’ve now gone back home … to Odessa,” Morgan said. “Slavik and Alyona are now on the ground, back at home, running the distribution of those things and ministering to those families in a much more direct way, providing support to them.”

Expanded definition of orphans

Many orphans in Ukraine have living parents who are unable to care for them, but must now do so because of the war. Such obstacles as mental and physical disabilities, substance abuse and financial handicaps have orphaned many. These children are among the orphans Scripture instructs Christians to care for, Morton said.

“I think in the body of Christ, we have to look at this differently to say we have a call from God to visit widows and orphans in their affliction. Visit means to pastor. It means to shepherd. And part of the pastoring and shepherding that’s going to need to be done now and for a long time in the future, is coming alongside these children that have experienced things that no child ever should,” he said.

“Some of them have experienced things that no child ever should before the war, and then all of this on top of that. And so, (we) need to lean in with not only our finances, our resources, but to find ways to lean in personally to get involved and do things to make a difference.”

Lifeline is studying a long-term strategy to mobilize its thousands of partner churches in using resources, including members in critical professions, to respond when it’s safe to enter Ukraine. Currently, churches are able to send teams to surrounding countries where orphans and other children are displaced by the war.

“We need really strategic kinds of people to dive into this,” he said. “There’s going to come a day when it is going to be a possibility.”

The inclusion of widows and orphans in the same Bible verses and discourses, Morton believes, lends weight to the notion that Scripture considers children orphans when they’ve lost one parent to death. Scripture likely refers to widowed women and their children.

“We don’t like to use the term ‘orphan’ in America. It holds a really negative connotation, but the rest of the world doesn’t necessarily look at it the same way we do,” he said. “And there definitely is a mindfulness about children who have lost one parent to death.”

Lifeline, based in Birmingham, Ala., began its ministry in Ukraine as an international adoption agency, but expanded it to include orphan care because of the unique orphan population there. The ministry is particularly dear to Morton, as he is the adoptive father to three Ukrainian children, now adults.

“I think we need to anticipate that the effects of this war are going to continue for a long time. There are going to be a lot of kids that are going to need safety and security and stability and they need churches, they need the body of Christ to rise up to help them meet those needs,” Morton has said.

“And we know that the true hope of Ukraine is not the end to the conflict. The true hope of Ukraine is the gospel, and it’s Jesus.

“And so, we’re both praying and actively working to bring the gospel to bear in the lives of vulnerable children and as we’re trying to help them experience safety and security right here and right now.”

TEHRAN, Iran (BP)—Long-persecuted Iranian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani is among at least three Christian prisoners released in Iran’s national amnesty marking the 44th anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Christian Solidarity Worldwide reported.

Nadarkhani, leader of a 400-member house church network in the northern city of Rasht in the Gilan province, had been imprisoned since 2018 on a 10-year sentence for apostasy that was reduced to six years in 2020.

He was accused of “acting against national security” by promoting house churches and Zionist Christianity. But he was first detained in 2006, commencing a series of governmental acts of persecution against his church.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom welcomed Nadarkhani’s release, but called on Iran to release all prisoners of conscience in the country where evangelical Christianity is banned.

“The Iranian regime has relentlessly targeted Christian converts from Islam for peacefully practicing their faith. Though we are relieved by his release many still remain imprisoned. We call for the release of all religious prisoners in Iran,” Vice Chair Abraham Cooper said.

“The U.S. government must continue to work with its partners in the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance to hold Iranian authorities accountable for its unjustified arrests and many violations of freedom of religion or belief.”

The International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance is a network of 37 countries the U.S. State Department describes as “fully committed to advancing freedom of religion or belief around the world,” and committed to Article 18 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights promoting religious freedom.

Nadarkhani benefited from international advocacy in 2010 after he was sentenced to death on a conviction of apostasy and evangelism that was overturned in 2012.

He grew up in a Muslim family but converted to Christianity at age 19. He and his wife, Tina, who was arrested and released in 2010, have two sons.

‘Long-overdue release’

In advance of Nadarkhani’s release Feb. 27 from the notoriously brutal Evin Prison, church members Hadi Rahimi and Zaman Fadaie were released from Evin Prison on Feb. 15 and Feb. 8, respectively, Morning Star News reported March 5. All three men are Christian converts from Islam.

Mervyn Thomas, Christian Solidarity Worldwide founder and president, also confirmed the release of Fadaie, who served as a deacon at Nadarkhani’s church.

“We welcome the long-overdue release of Pastor Nadarkhani and Deacon Fadaie, but note that they have lost years of their life in prison on false charges as a result of Iran’s continuing criminalization of the Christian faith, among other religions and beliefs,” Thomas said.

 “We call on the Iranian authorities to ensure that these men are permitted to enjoy their freedom without further harassment or intimidation, and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all others who are currently imprisoned on account of their religion or belief.”

Fadaei had been arrested with Nadarkhani and was serving a six-year sentence under the same charges of “acting against national security” and “promoting Zionist Christianity.” He had been sentenced to 10 years in 2018, but the sentence was reduced in 2020. Rahimi had been serving a four-year sentence since 2020 for his house church involvement.

As many as “tens of thousands” of prisoners were pardoned in recognition of the revolution, according to the government-controlled Islamic Republic News Agency that is widely considered a source of propaganda. The pardons were approved by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Iran’s constitution does not recognize evangelical Christian communities, USCIRF said, and only nominally recognizes other Christian groups. The country particularly targets for persecution Christian converts from Islam.

The U.S. State Department in November 2022 designated Iran a country of particular concern, noting systemic, ongoing and egregious religious freedom violations. Other countries on the list are Burma (Myanmar), China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.

Open Doors International, in its 2023 World Watch List, ranked Iran as the eighth most dangerous country for Christians, noting an increasingly strict Islamic regime that views house churches as an attempt by Western countries to undermine Islam and the regime’s authority.

Two high-capacity Texas-made water filters are providing clean water for earthquake survivors in Turkey, and more will be used both in Turkey and Syria in coming days, thanks to a Texas Baptist Men-led team.

The team installed the first filter at a community center that is providing shower facilities, meals and medical care for about 800 people.

The second filter was installed Feb. 27 in a feeding unit at a high school in Central Turkey, where about 2,500 people are receiving meals daily, said Mitch Chapman, a water ministry specialist with TBM and pastor of a rural church east of Dallas.

Chapman, who is leading a disaster relief team of four volunteers from Missouri, said the necessary component parts for eight additional filtration systems were secured from Istanbul on March 1.

“The filters from Istanbul were delayed in getting here, but we made good use of the time,” Chapman said.

The team distributed four small gravity-operated water filtration systems using 5-gallon buckets to tent cities for individual use. Each one is capable of purifying 500 gallons of water a day.

“The water that is available from the city system here is cloudy, but the quality is not terrible,” Chapman said.

Making their way south toward Syria

Once the component parts arrived from Istanbul, the team assembled four filters that will be installed in tent cities they encounter as they travel southward. Once they approach the Syrian border, ministry partners from Syria will meet them in southern Turkey.

The disaster relief team will demonstrate how to assemble one unit and then leave it and the parts for the other three for the ministry partners to use with earthquake survivors in Syria.

Currently, the Red Crescent and others are setting up tent cities to house individuals and families displaced by the earthquake, and the Turkish military is delivering food to them regularly.

“The government hopes to close all the tent cities in three to four months and move all the people into container houses,” Chapman explained.

Looking ahead, he anticipates the greatest needs will be clean water, shower and toilet facilities, and basic sanitation. TBM and its ministry partners potentially could provide bucket filtration systems and assist with clean-up in the areas where people are sheltered, he noted.

Aftershocks continue throughout the region at a rate of three or four a day. One that registered 5.7 magnitude hit an area shortly after the TBM-led team left, Chapman noted.

He requested prayer for:

• Safe travel for the disaster relief team as they make their way from Central Turkey toward the southern border.
• Rapid construction of alternative housing for earthquake survivors currently living in tents.
• Both the physical and spiritual needs of people in the affected area.

While Christians serving in Turkey cannot distribute any printed gospel materials, they are free to answer questions about why they are serving, Chapman said.

He recalled going to a hardware store to pick up supplies and the owner inviting him to sit down for tea. Because he was on a tight schedule, Chapman initially declined the invitation, but a ministry partner encouraged him to take the time to share a pot of tea.

“He said, ‘When they are asking you to drink tea, they really are asking you to tell your story,’” Chapman said. “Pray that the people’s hearts would be softened so they can see the truth.”

A half-dozen Christian families who fled China due to persecution have been adopted by East Texas churches, but another 10 families need resettlement sponsors.

Deana Brown, founder and CEO of Freedom Seekers International, is working in partnership with Bob Fu, founder and president of ChinaAid, to help the Christians in Thailand who fear deportation back to China, where they escaped persecution.

Midland-based ChinaAid is providing assistance to the 65 Chinese Christians living in Thailand, while Freedom Seekers International in Tyler is seeking sponsors for their resettlement to the United States.

Members of the Shezhen Holy Reformed Church—nicknamed the “Mayflower Church” because of their desire for religious freedom—fled China after being subjected to repeated threats and interrogation by Chinese police.

They first sought refuge in South Korea. After being denied asylum there, they relocated to Thailand on tourist visas, but the Thai government has refused to renew their visas.

Seeking refugee status

Members of the church are in the process of seeking refugee status from the United Nations, and each has been issued a “refugee-seeker” identification.

“So far, only two of the 16 families have been granted a second refugee determination interview with the U.N.,” said Brown, a former Southern Baptist missionary to Eritrea.

Members of the Mayflower Church in Thailand have “trauma-bonded” since their departure from China, and they will “do better together, at least at first,” when they are resettled, Brown said.

Texas Baptist congregations that have pledged to help sponsor the persecuted Christians from China include First Baptist Church and South Spring Baptist Church of Tyler.

Other East Texas churches that have made commitments include Flint Baptist Church in Flint, Sylvania Church in Tyler, Grace Community Church in Tyler and Rose Heights Church in Tyler.

The financial commitment for sponsorship is about $50,000 per family, depending on size of the household, Brown said. Cost is less if in-kind donations of furniture, appliances and other supplies are available.

Advocating for persecuted church

In December, faith leaders—including Elijah Brown, general secretary of the Baptist World Alliance, and Katie Frugé, director of Texas Baptists’ Christian Life Commission—signed a letter to congressional leaders, urging them to advocate for the persecuted Chinese Christians.

Rep. Michael McCaul, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, recently sent a letter to Rashad Hussain, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, and to Julieta Valls Noyes, assistant secretary of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, on behalf of the Mayflower Church.

“The United States must intervene to help ensure the safety of the group, protect them against refoulment and continued harassment by [the People’s Republic of China], and support their prompt assessment for protection as refugees, including consideration by the United States Refugee Admission Program,” McCaul said.

He urged Hussain and Noyes to “work to ensure prompt assessment and status determination for those connected to the Mayflower Church seeking protection as refugees.”

McCaul also asked that the issue be raised with the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and that the international agency “condemn the Chinese government’s transnational repression.”

Organizations advocating for the Mayflower Church, including 21Wilberforce, also are exploring the option of securing humanitarian parole from the United States as a temporary measure until they can be granted asylum or other permanent legal status.

In early January, President Joe Biden announced the United States is expanding the humanitarian parole processalready in effect for Venezuela and Ukraine to allow up to 30,000 nationals per month from Nicaragua, Haiti and Cuba. However, persecuted religious minorities in China were not included.

Encouraging the Mayflower Church

In addition to contributing to the resettlement of Mayflower Church members, praying for them and advocating on their behalf, Christians in the United States also can encourage the persecuted Christians through visits, Brown said.

Members of Green Acres Baptist Church and South Spring Baptist Church in Tyler have traveled to Thailand recently with Freedom Seekers International’s ambassador program, she noted.

The Mayflower Church has reported continued harassment and threats of abduction by Chinese agents in Thailand. So, their freedom of movement typically is limited outside the “safety zone” where they are living, Brown said.

However, when accompanied by visiting American citizens, they are able to shop, go to appointments and enjoy recreation without harassment, she explained.

In the past eight months, 23 Americans have traveled to Thailand to encourage members of the Mayflower Church. Estimated cost for a weeklong ambassador trip to Thailand is about $2,500, she added.

The next trip to Thailand is planned in April, and participants will hand-deliver letters of encouragement to the Mayflower Church from Christians in the United States, Brown said.

To contact Deana Brown, call (903) 262-6536 or email admin@seekfreedom.org.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Some information in this story is kept intentionally vague for security reasons and to promote the effectiveness of the work being done.

A Texas Baptist Men-led team in Turkey has set up the first of two water filter systems shipped from Texas to the earthquake-ravaged area this past week.

The second will be on line soon, and supplies to build eight more systems are being shipped from Istanbul, Turkey.

TBM’s water specialist and four Missouri Disaster Relief leaders arrived in Turkey on Feb. 24. They are housed almost three hours away from the quake epicenter and have experienced some aftershocks, but all is going well, the TBM representative said.

“This is by far the worst disaster I have ever seen, and I went to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. This destruction far exceeds any of that,” the water specialist said.

“Overall, the need is great, but the United Nations, Turkish and other relief organizations have done a good job of handling the situation, removing bodies in a manner that honors people’s privacy. … The things that need addressing right now are clean water, hygiene and trash removal.”

The team installed the first filter in a community center being used as a shelter where about 800 people can eat, take showers, and obtain medical care and medicine. They expect to install the second Texas-built filter on Feb. 27,  while awaiting shipment of the supplies from Istanbul.

TBM Executive Director Mickey Lenamon asked Texas Baptists to pray for this “critical, life-saving ministry in a devastated area.”

Lenamon specifically requested prayer:

• For the Turkish people. “This situation has rocked them to the core. May they sense the comfort and presence of the Lord.”
• For supplies. “The team has ordered pieces for eight more filters. Please pray the items arrive from Istanbul quickly and the team gets clearance to install them in the areas of most need.”
• For safety. “One aftershock already has occurred while the team was on the ground. Pray for protection for the Turkish people, as well as the volunteer team.”

TBM’s water specialist reported the team’s work has been productive, even though the plumbing fittings used in Turkey are different from those in Texas.

“We ran around to hardware stores finding what we needed,” he said.

Already, some Turkish people have been trained in how to set up the filtration system, and more are to be trained in the coming week, including some from Syria.

The damage in Turkey has given the TBM water specialist his first personal experience of earthquake damage.

“The destruction is a little more isolated than I expected,” he said. “All of the buildings in a four-block area might be flattened, but then you go several blocks where the buildings did not collapse. Then, you come upon another devastated area.

“The frequency of the shockwaves affects the amount of damage, and frequency happens in waves. … It doesn’t get every building… You’ll have clusters of buildings that fell in the quake.”

The team is not explicitly sharing its faith, but they are working with in-country Christian groups.

“Most of our contacts are known to be part of a Christian group. So, others understand that our faith motivates our care for them.”