Persecution Watch Weblog

Pastor Chuck & Arlyn
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India (MNN) —Last week, Gospel for Asia sent out a report that missionary N. Chauhan had been beaten and abducted by Hindu extremists in Madhya Pradesh, India. The very next day, Chauhan narrowly escaped the clutches of his captors.

Chauhan was questioned about his ministry by extremists in a marketplace, and he was then dragged off to a house to be beaten. After refusing to stomp on the Bible when commanded to do so, Chauhan was beaten several more times.

Concerned about Chauhan’s absence, GFA leaders tried to contact him. The extremists had taken his cell phone and answered the call saying, “The same thing is going to happen to you!”

The extremists later attempted to deal with Chauhan by taking him near a road at night to meet their leader. After he had been untied to relieve himself, Chauhan quickly made his escape, running nine miles to the home of another believer and losing his abductors behind him.

Chauhan is now safe, but the unmitigated attack on a believer in India somewhere other than Orissa is disheartening. Anti-Christian attacks, originally thought to be constrained to Orissa state, have been spreading at increasing rates to surrounding areas. Christians have been beaten in Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where a church has also been forcibly shut down. Believers have also been threatened by death in Delhi and Maharashtra for meeting and passing out Christian literature.

This expansion of violence is especially discouraging because, as GFA President K.P. Yohannan puts it, “extremists are becoming more and more brazen in their attacks.”

GFA has not lost hope, however, and praises God that Chauhan is safely back. Please continue to pray for the protection of his family, as well as the protection of thousands of other at -risk Christians in India.

Pastor Chuck & Arlyn
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Nigeria (MNN) — Muslims have renewed battle efforts in their decades-long dispute with Christians in Nigeria.

Plateau State, located in central Nigeria, is on the front line between the Muslim-dominated northern region of Nigeria and the predominately-Christian south. Jos, the capital city of Plateau State, has recently been the location of many violent attacks. 400 have been confirmed dead, and attacks have been centered on the burning of churches and Christian homes.

An indigenous mission agency, Grace Foundation Inland Mission, requests prayer for believers in Jos. Grace Foundation reports that pastors and believers were among the 400 killed, contributing to the belief that attacks were targeted at Christians.

“They claim it is a reaction to a local government election, but we all know that it is preconceived,” said the group’s international director, Andrew Abah, in an e-mail received by the home office. “Election has nothing to do with burning down of churches, killing of pastors and other Christians, and massive looting of Christian shops.”

Some government officials say radicals are using violent religious oppression to disguise a political ploy.

One of Grace Foundation’s missionaries was taken captive by Muslim extremists, but after 10 hours he managed to escape to safety. He is currently staying with a fellow missionary. Thousands of others who have been displaced by the violence are now taking shelter in public buildings such as police stations and hospitals.

“There is a 24-hour curfew but [it's] not fully adhered to by the Muslims,” Abah reported. “They are quietly entering into houses and killing people.”

In addition to their missionary work among regional unreached people groups, Grace Foundation also has a children’s home for orphans and vulnerable children.

The staff moved children from the Unreached Children Home (UCH) to a safer location due to fear of becoming the militants’ next target.

Shortly after the move, Muslims marched to the Grace International mission base to set fire to the facility. In God’s providence, however, they were deterred by Christians until the military arrived and intervened. The government has deployed almost 300 armed soldiers to control the violence.

Please pray for Christians in Nigeria. Pray for the preservation of Grace Foundation and for an end to these attacks.

Pastor Chuck & Arlyn

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India (MNN) — In a swell of violence in Uttar Pradesh last week, a Hindu extremist group physically forced a Christian church led by a Gospel for Asia missionary to shut down. The group plans to build a Hindu temple in place of the church.

The extremist group plans not only to advocate their religion, but to force people to it at all costs. According to a Gospel for Asia report, the group’s leader is dedicated to both physically and mentally torturing Christians until they deny Christ and convert with reverence to Hinduism.

In order to accomplish their goals, radicals have recruited several Dalits, or untouchables, to attack and kill Christians. Within the Hindu caste system, Dalits cannot associate with members of other castes, and it seems that extremists will likely discard them when they have served their purposes. The group has intentionally drafted young Dalit boys who are easily impressionable and able to be enticed by offers of acceptance.

The violence in Uttar Pradesh is slowly rising to levels of horror seen usually just in Orissa. Many Christians who were never Hindus to begin with have been physically forced into the religion by anti-Christian radicals. Hundreds of thousands of believers are left hiding in the jungle, barely hanging on to their lives.

Please continue to pray that there would be an end to this terrible violence. Pray that the faith and stability of the Christians in India would draw extremists away from Hinduism and toward Christ.

“All men will hate you because of Me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved” (Matthew 10:22).

Pastor Chuck & Arlyn

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Vietnam (MNN) — In violation of Vietnam’s new religion policy, authorities in Vietnam’s far north are pressuring new Christians among the Hmong minority to recant their faith and to re-establish ancestral altars, according to area church leaders.

Compass Direct reports that when the authorities in the region discovered villagers had converted to Christianity, they sent “work teams” in to apply pressure, saying the government considered becoming a Christian a very serious offense.

Patrick Klein, founder of Vision Beyond Borders, recently returned from Vietnam and describes the persecution. “They’re trying to get these people to let go of their tribal identities, learn Vietnamese, learn Vietnamese culture, and everything else. There’s a lot of persecution, especially the Hmong people who helped the CIA during the Vietnam War.”

It’s a combination of religious and ethnic persecution, says Klein. “A lot of it is Christian persecution, because of lot of these tribal people have become Christians. [They're seen as] puppets for the U.S. government or for the British, trying to overthrow the government. And that’s not the case at all,” says Klein.

He says many of the Hmong are fleeing. “They’re going into Laos. A lot of have gone into Cambodia.”

Klein says there are atrocities being reported. “They have bounty hunters that go looking for these people. I think it’s $44 a head they get for everyone they catch. And, what they’re doing is cutting the Achilles tendon on the men and doing horrible things to the women, and then tying them up and throwing them into the river to drown.”

Despite the persecution, the church is growing.

The needs of these churches are great, according to a pastor Vision Beyond Borders works with. “The man we work with has actually spent seven years and three months in prison. Now, he oversees 500 churches. The day before we saw him, he had been with some Hmong pastors, and they said, ‘Pastor, we really need more Bibles. Can you get us more Bibles?’”

In God’s providence, Klein and others would deliver 1,000 Bibles the very next day.

Klein is asking Christians to pray for the Hmong believers, and pray that the Vietnamese government will stop harassing these tribal peoples.

If you would like to help Vision Beyond Borders deliver Bibles to Vietnam, click here.