Meet the Persecuted

Seth was born and raised in a squalid Palestinian refugee camp near in the Middle East. During school breaks, he would study the Qur’an and came to love Islam.  He felt that Allah had called him to be an Imam someday. (Imam is an Arabic word for a leader that must be followed since Allah (God) appoints him; it has important origins in Islamic tradition) His father, who was a radical leader in an Islamic fundamentalist group, taught him his strict views on what it meant to be a Muslim. Seth’s father would go on for days propagating hatred for Israel and America.

After years of his father’s indoctrination of hatred and four years of studies, Seth officially became an Imam. Part of his training took place in the camp of the Islamic fundamentalist. Seth remembers having to sleep with 500 other young men in small rooms. If one person moved, they all felt it.

In certain Islamic traditions, an Imam “is the perfect example of everything” and that was what Seth had become. Part of his passion was to kill Jews and Americans and he was sworn to the destruction of Israel.

However, a whisper of change came during Seth’s daily prayers. He began to question if this Islamic ideology was from Allah or God at all. “Why are we killing people for God?”

He befriended a young Christian man who invited him to a meeting. Seth went to the meeting with the purpose of converting this young man to Islam. A Christian evangelist spoke at this gathering and he was given a Bible, which he threw on the ground. Seth became defensive, and fervently tried convincing the people there to become Muslims.

As hard as he tried, he could not get the evangelist’s message of love and forgiveness out of his mind. Seth went back a second time to hear more of what the evangelist had to say, and eventually surrendered his life to the Lord.

Seth immediately paid a price for his new found faith as his family kept him locked up in his room trying to get him to recant it. He would not and fled back to his new homeland to escape the persecution. For years, Seth had not seen his family or friends knowing they would kill him if they found him. Leaving Islam is worthy of death to Muslims.

To help satisfy his appetite for knowing more about this Jesus, Seth spent time with a Christian organization.  There he received Discipleship training. While he was with the organization Seth met a group of Messianic Jews and told them his story. Upon telling them about his incredible transformation, they gathered around him on their knees and washed his feet.

Upon returning to home and going through immigration, Seth had to fill out a form and state his occupation. He filled it in as “Injil”, which indicates that he is a Christian evangelist. The immigration officer looked at it, saw Seth’s Muslim name on the form and asked, “How can this be?”  Religious identity is very important in the Middle East and to the immigration officer Seth was an enigma.

Having been arrested and jailed four times for sharing the Gospel on the streets has not stopped Seth. Each time he boldly shares that very same Gospel with the police and investigators, and continues sharing wherever he goes.

Please pray for Seth as he boldly seeks to do what God has prepared him to do.

To Read more Meet the Persecuted stories click here.

On the Front Lines

PAKISTAN: Taliban Kills Foreign Aid Workers

Kidnapped relief workers had come to provide aid to victims of massive flooding.

Pakistan,  August 27 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities on Wednesday (Aug. 25) recovered the bodies of three Christian relief workers who had been kidnapped and killed by members of the Pakistani Taliban in the flood-ravaged country, area officials said. Swat District Coordination Officer Atif-Ur-Rehman told Compass that the Pakistan Army recovered the bodies of the three foreign flood-relief workers at about on Wednesday. An official at the international humanitarian organization that employed the workers withheld their names and requested that the agency remain unnamed for security reasons. Military sources who withheld news of the deaths from electronic and print media to avoid panicking other relief workers granted permission to Compass to publish it in limited form. “The foreigner aid workers have been working in Mingora and the surrounding areas,” Rehman said. “On Aug. 23 they were returning to their base, when a group of Taliban attacked their vehicle. They injured around five or six people and kidnapped three foreign humanitarian workers.” Pakistan has been hit by its worst flooding in decades, with the United Nations now estimating more than 21.8 million people have been affected. An army Inter-Services Public Relations source said rangers have been deployed in Swat and other potential target areas to help provide security for relief workers. “The Taliban had warned about attacks on foreigner aid workers and Christian organizations,” the ISPR source said. Advocacy organizations have complained of alleged discrimination against minorities in distribution of humanitarian aid in Punjab Province.  “It is discouraging to see that the Christian organizations are wholeheartedly supporting the victims regardless of the religion or race, but in most of the areas the Christians are totally ignored and not even allowed to stay,” said Kashif Mazhar, vice president of advocacy organization Life for All.

Please pray for the Christians and Muslims in Pakistan.

Pray for the safety of the Christian relief workers.

Pray for the familes of the relief workers who were murdered.

Pray the Christian flood victims get the supplies they need to survive.

Pray for the Muslims to come to know the truth of who Jesus really is and treat others as themselves.

INDIA: News Briefs

Recent Incidents of Persecution

India (Compass Direct News) – Hindu nationalists on Aug. 20 beat a pastor after falsely accusing him of “allurement” in the conversion of some villagers. The Global Council of Indian Christians (GCIC) reported that Pastor David Kalagade of Jeevan Jala Prayer Mandiram was conducting a prayer service at another Christian’s house when 40 area extremists barged into the house and accused him of bribing villagers to convert. Pastor Kalagade told Compass that the extremists tore up Christian literature and dragged him to the village council. Police were summoned, but the extremists could not substantiate their claims that people were given 500 to 1,000 rupees (about US$10 to US$20) to embrace Christianity. Police called the pastor to the police station on Aug. 21 and, contrary to the religious freedom provisions in the Indian constitution, forced him to sign a statement that he would not convert people in the village. Police official Anil Kumar told Compass that police also took a written statement from the extremists pledging that they would not create disturbances for the Christians. GCIC sources told Compass that the extremists were closely monitoring the daily activities of Christians.

Pray for the Christians and Hindus in India.

Pray for God to grant the Christians the strength to withstand the trials they face. To exhibit Christ's love at all times.

Pray for the Hindu people to find Jesus.

The Word of God

Most of the Bibles that we distribute in Arabic are the Smith/Van Dyke version, one of the oldest and most used translations especially among the Orthodox Christians.

Many older people are illiterate, but men and boys under 30 years of age can read and write. Fifty percent of girls and women are illiterate although that is changing for the better. 

Our Bibles are distributed to local churches and to key people in ministry. Many of the village churches have old, worn out Bibles. Many of these Bibles are missing Genesis and Revelation due to of years of use. These pages have disintegrated. We provide Bibles with zippered cases for people in ministry for the protection of their Bible.

A little history of the Smith/Van Dyke Arabic Bible:

Dr. Henry Smith started translating the Bible into the Arabic language in the year 1848 for the American Bible Society. Upon his death, Dr. Van Dyke was appointed to the work. He was then living in Sidon in Lebanon and moved to Beirut in November 1857, and went on with the work as directed. As the American Bible Society required a strict adherence to the Textus Receptus of Hahn's Greek Testament, Dr. Van Dyke revised every verse in the New Testament taking up the work as if new.

Priest Ghubreen Jebara, a learned Greek ecclesiastic in Beirut, said in a public address, in 1865, "But for the American missionaries, the Word of God had well-nigh perished out of the language. But now, through the labors of Dr. Eli Smith and Dr. Van Dyke, they have given us a translation so pure, so exact, so clear, and so classical, as to be acceptable to all classes and all sects."

Please pray for the Word of God to reach and change the world.