Persecution Blog

Middle East Christians "Standing in the Fire"

For Christians in Syria and other Middle East nations, human logic is clear: get out! Go someplace safe!

In spite of such advice, Tom and JoAnn Doyle tell us many Christians are choosing to STAY and serve the Lord and witness for Christ. These bold brothers and sisters are standing in the fire of war and persecution, and they are finding—just as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego did—that God is standing with them.

Listen to the story of Jamila, a 12-year-old girl healed from cancer after a Christian man prayed for her in Jesus’ name, leading to hundreds of Druze people coming to faith in Christ. Jamila's is just one of the stories in Tom Doyle’s new book, Standing in the Fire.

You’ll be encouraged as you hear what God is doing in the Middle East, and challenged as Tom and JoAnn give insights into how we, Christians in free nations, can emulate the lessons offered by our brothers and sisters standing in the fire.

Order “Standing In The Fire” by Tom Doyle (affiliate link).

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The Man Behind the Myth: St. Valentine

Today we celebrate Valentine's Day, a day many Americans focus on love and romance. But most of those celebrating don't know that the man for whom this day is named was a Christian persecuted because of his Christian actions.

The following comes from the "Note from the Author to Parents and Educators" that is included in The Story of St. Valentine: More Than Cards and Candy Hearts, a book for children published by VOM that tells the true story of  Valentine's Day.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14^th, but why? Many buy cards and candied hearts and do not know there was a man named Valentine. Who was the man behind this holiday that has become known for cupid, chocolate, roses and love notes saying, “Be my Valentine”?

Valentine, or Valentinus as he was known, was a leader in the church and lived in the Roman Empire during the third century. However, there are three Valentines who are noted as having lived in the late third century during Emperor Claudius II’s reign. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni, Italy), and the third a martyr in a Roman province of Africa. Some believe the martyrdom of all three men named Valentinus occurred on February 14^th. Many scholars believe two of them, the priest in Rome and the bishop of Interamna, are the same, suggesting the bishop of Interamna was a Roman priest who became bishop and was sentenced there and brought to Rome for his execution. It is believed Valentinus’ martyrdom occurred about the year 269 A.D.

Even though some have questioned the existence of Valentinus, many would agree his life is a mystery. History proved his existence when archaeologists unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him. He is mentioned in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, written about saints around the year 1260. (It is noted this was perhaps the most widely read book after the Bible during the late Middle Ages.) He was also featured in a woodcut in the illustrated book called The Nuremberg Chronicle, printed in 1493.

Sources indicate it was Emperor Claudius II who had Valentinus executed for secretly marrying Roman soldiers, defying an order from the emperor that soldiers were not allowed to marry. Claudius (also called Claudius the Cruel) was having difficulty recruiting soldiers and believed Roman men were unwilling to leave their loved ones because soldiers were required to fight for at least 25 years. Therefore, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements. However, Valentinus, along with Marius, secretly married couples until he was apprehended and brought before the Prefect of Rome. It is even believed Valentinus tried to convert Emperor Claudius. In The Story of Saint Valentine: More Than Cards and Candied Hearts, the conversation between Emperor Cludius and Velentinus is based on the one printed in de Voragine’s Golden Legend. Another legend says during Valentinus’ imprisonment, while awaiting his execution, he restored the sight of his jailer’s daughter. (In this story we call the jailer “Marcus.”) Yet another says on the eve of his death, he wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter and signed it, “From your Valentine.”

In 496 A.D., more than 200 years after Valentinus was executed, a church leader marked February 14^thas a celebration to honor Valentinus’ courageous life to replace a pagan Roman holiday. February 14^th was the day the Romans honored Juno, the Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses and also known as the goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15^th, started the Feast of Lupercalia, which honored Faunus, the god of fertility and forests. On the eve of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on pieces of paper and placed in jars. Young men would draw a girl’s name and be partnered with that girl throughout the festival. Sometimes this pairing lasted the whole year, and often they would fall in love and later marry.

And what about cupid? Why does his image appear during Valentine’s Day? Cupid was the Roman god of love.

Despite the mystery, legends and questions masking the man Valentine, this story was written to convey his courageous life and death. May The Story of St. Valentine: More Than Cards and Candy Hearts inspire children of all ages to boldly present Jesus Christ to a world in need of His hope (I Peter 3:15)!

The following comes from the "Note from the Author to Parents and Educators" that is included in The Story of St. Valentine: More Than Cards and Candy Hearts, a book for children published by VOM that tells the true story of  Valentine's Day.

Valentine’s Day is celebrated every year on February 14^th, but why? Many buy cards and candied hearts and do not know there was a man named Valentine. Who was the man behind this holiday that has become known for cupid, chocolate, roses and love notes saying, “Be my Valentine”?

Valentine, or Valentinus as he was known, was a leader in the church and lived in the Roman Empire during the third century. However, there are three Valentines who are noted as having lived in the late third century during Emperor Claudius II’s reign. One was a priest in Rome, another a bishop of Interamna (modern Terni, Italy), and the third a martyr in a Roman province of Africa. Some believe the martyrdom of all three men named Valentinus occurred on February 14^th. Many scholars believe two of them, the priest in Rome and the bishop of Interamna, are the same, suggesting the bishop of Interamna was a Roman priest who became bishop and was sentenced there and brought to Rome for his execution. It is believed Valentinus’ martyrdom occurred about the year 269 A.D.

Even though some have questioned the existence of Valentinus, many would agree his life is a mystery. History proved his existence when archaeologists unearthed a Roman catacomb and an ancient church dedicated to him. He is mentioned in Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, written about saints around the year 1260. (It is noted this was perhaps the most widely read book after the Bible during the late Middle Ages.) He was also featured in a woodcut in the illustrated book called The Nuremberg Chronicle, printed in 1493.

Sources indicate it was Emperor Claudius II who had Valentinus executed for secretly marrying Roman soldiers, defying an order from the emperor that soldiers were not allowed to marry. Claudius (also called Claudius the Cruel) was having difficulty recruiting soldiers and believed Roman men were unwilling to leave their loved ones because soldiers were required to fight for at least 25 years. Therefore, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements. However, Valentinus, along with Marius, secretly married couples until he was apprehended and brought before the Prefect of Rome. It is even believed Valentinus tried to convert Emperor Claudius. In The Story of Saint Valentine: More Than Cards and Candied Hearts, the conversation between Emperor Cludius and Velentinus is based on the one printed in de Voragine’s Golden Legend. Another legend says during Valentinus’ imprisonment, while awaiting his execution, he restored the sight of his jailer’s daughter. (In this story we call the jailer “Marcus.”) Yet another says on the eve of his death, he wrote a note to the jailer’s daughter and signed it, “From your Valentine.”

In 496 A.D., more than 200 years after Valentinus was executed, a church leader marked February 14^thas a celebration to honor Valentinus’ courageous life to replace a pagan Roman holiday. February 14^th was the day the Romans honored Juno, the Queen of the Roman gods and goddesses and also known as the goddess of women and marriage. The following day, February 15^th, started the Feast of Lupercalia, which honored Faunus, the god of fertility and forests. On the eve of Lupercalia, the names of Roman girls were written on pieces of paper and placed in jars. Young men would draw a girl’s name and be partnered with that girl throughout the festival. Sometimes this pairing lasted the whole year, and often they would fall in love and later marry.

And what about cupid? Why does his image appear during Valentine’s Day? Cupid was the Roman god of love.

Despite the mystery, legends and questions masking the man Valentine, this story was written to convey his courageous life and death. May The Story of St. Valentine: More Than Cards and Candy Hearts inspire children of all ages to boldly present Jesus Christ to a world in need of His hope (I Peter 3:15)!

We All Serve Someone

"We all serve someone. Those who serve sin and the Devil end up in bondage (John 8:34). Those who serve the Son end up free (v. 36). Paul was ridiculously happy to serve the Lord and considered himself the Lord's prisoner (Eph. 4:1). Imprisoned for and by and with Jesus is not only liberty, it is a calling. Humans do not send us to prison when we are sent for the gospel's sake. God calls us to prison. Therefore, our primary goal is to not escape from prison or seek deliverance from trouble or evacuate from countries that are disintegrating. Our goal is to glorify Jesus and walk worthy of His calling - the call to be His prisoner."

Quoted from Live Dead Joy: 365 Days of Living and Dying With Jesus by Dick Brogden

Supernatural Things

If you are a US resident, you can request a FREE copy of Pastor Wurmbrand's book, Tortured For Christ. You can also share this photo on Facebook or Twitter.

What May Surprise You about the Refugee Crisis

Book Review: Seeking Refuge

Most of us are aware – and concerned – of the refugee crisis surging against Europe’s shores, though media attention has moved on by now. Greek Coast guard members continue to pull desperate people out of the ocean almost daily, and huge refugee camps in Greece and elsewhere are home to tens of thousands of refugees, mostly from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq.

I recently read Seeking Refuge: On the Shores of the Global Refugee Crisis by several World Relief staff. I knew I’d be educated about the current refugee situation, but I never expected their words to have so much to do with our persecuted brothers and sisters.

While presidential candidates, politicians and pundits speculate about the imagined results of resettling refugees into our country, Seeking Refuge provides a different perspective. Namely, that serving the alien, aka the refugee, is a Biblical mandate that all Christ followers are called to pursue. The authors explain this mandate using various Scripture passages.

Most enlightening though, is how serving refugees in America can be a way to serve our persecuted brothers and sisters. According to a World Relief study, “about 340,000 professing Christians of one tradition or another have been admitted into the United States as refugees between 2003 and 2015, more than any other religious tradition [emphasis mine]. Many of those individuals and families were persecuted particularly because of their Christian faith. Of approximately 125,000 Iraqi refugees admitted since 2007, for example, more than 35 percent have been Christians – many times more than the Christian share of the Iraqi population – because Christians have been uniquely persecuted.” [pg 25]

Perhaps that new Iraqi family I see walking their children to school every morning are believers. And perhaps they’re feeling lonely and alienated in a new culture and climate. One of World Relief’s major endeavors is partnering incoming refugees with a welcoming church family who will help them bridge the gap as they settle into a foreign new place.

As the authors say, “If we were forced to flee our country, we would hope that a Christian brother or sister in the country to which we fled would be there to welcome us, to help us adjust, and to lament with us what we had lost. We have the opportunity to stand with the persecuted church as many come into our country each year.” [pg 25] At The Voice of the Martyrs, we encourage our readers to engage with and stand with the persecuted. What if our persecuted brothers and sisters aren’t oceans away but instead are moving into apartments just down the street?

If we fear incoming immigrants, we’re operating under false assumptions. According to missiologist Timothy Tennent, the “percentage of immigrants in North America who either arrive as or become Christians is significantly higher than the Christian share of the native population.”[pg 32] If we act in fear, “We risk ignoring a divine mandate if our sole priorities are safety, comfort and convenience.” The authors exhort us to begin thinking biblically –“not merely politically or economically” – about immigrants. [pg 32] “Safety is fine, but it is not – cannot – be our ultimate value if we follow Jesus.”[page 68]

So how do we think biblically about immigrants? These new arrivals present a huge mission field, people and religions we might never have encountered otherwise, brought right to our doorsteps. As we support and encourage persecuted believers who are reaching their enemies for Christ, how can we not reach out to our “enemies” in love?

The authors acknowledge that serving people is hard. It’s messy and complicated. Many of the new arrivals bring with them deep trauma. Their languages and customs are different. But again, as followers of Jesus, our obligation is not to neat, safe, ordered lives. Instead it is to engage – to serve the persecuted and to reach the lost.

And somewhat surprisingly, we can do that right here in America by welcoming an immigrant.

Dory P has been on staff with The Voice of the Martyrs for nearly 10 years. As a freshman at Wheaton College, she interned at World Relief DuPage, giving her brand new eyes for immigrants. At that time, most of the arriving immigrants were from the Sudan and the Balkans.

Disclosure: VOM is part of the Amazon Associates program. If you click on the links in this post and purchase the book from Amazon, VOM will receive a very small percentage of your purchase as a referral fee.

Tyndale: Father of the English Bible

If you read the Bible in English, you owe a debt of gratitude to William Tyndale. Today marks the anniversary of Tyndale’s execution at the stake in 1536 for the “crime” of translating the Bible into English. Here is Tyndale’s story, as told in VOM’s book, FOXE: Voices of the Martyrs.

William Tyndale was a well-educated scholar who was frustrated at the distance between English education and the Bible, the source of truth. Studying at Oxford and then at Cambridge, he bristled at the barriers and longed for the nourishment his mind and heart treasured. “In the universities,” he said, “they have ordained that no man shall look on the Scripture until he be nozzled in heathen learning eight or nine years, and armed with false principles with which he is clean shut out of the understanding of the Scripture.” Tyndale’s life would be devoted to overcoming just this obstacle. For him, the Bible “for the people” would become the answer to corruption in the church. The Bible “for the people” meant that all could drink from the truth itself, without pressure or pretext; and most clearly, without a priest to read or interpret.

Tyndale was born sometime around 1494 in Gloucester, England, near the Welsh border. Ninety years earlier the Church had banned the only English Bible in the world, the hand-copied work of John Wycliffe. It was a flawed translation, based on the Latin Vulgate, but it was all English speakers had. And to have it was a crime. Tyndale’s passions eventually settled on a mission as dangerous as any in his century: to work from the Greek and Hebrew texts to create a Bible in vernacular English, so readable and accurate that an Englishman could depend on it, learn from it, and find God’s voice in it. All this was clear to the multilingual Tyndale by the age of thirty.

To do that work, Tyndale had to leave England. No bishop in the realm would protect him, much less encourage the project. Tyndale traveled to Germany where he completed the New Testament in 1525. Then he went on to Antwerp, one step ahead of English agents, where the first five Old Testament books were translated and printed. In Belgium he met a community of English merchants, and though agents were searching the continent to find him, Tyndale felt secure enough to relax his guard. His lack of caution would prove fatal.

Tyndale took up a friendship with Henry Phillips, who won Tyndale’s confidence but secretly sough the bounty offered for his capture. In May, 1535, the trap was set. Tyndale was taken under guard to the castle at Vilvoorde, near Brussels, where he suffered in dank and cold for eighteen months before standing trial for “maintaining that faith alone justifies…that to believe in the forgiveness of sins, and to embrace the mercy offered in the gospel, was enough for salvation.” The complete list of charges included direct attacks on church teaching, among them that “neither the Virgin nor the Saints should be invoked by us.”

Tyndale knew how these trials ran. He would have no chance at defense, and death was the remedy. With his body shaking from cold and the winter’s light dim for writing, he worked to complete the English Bible, helped by a sympathetic prison governor.

In August, 1536, Tyndale was condemned as a heretic and defrocked. For two more months he was kept at Vilvoorde. Then in early October, just past dawn, he was led from prison to the stake. Formalities included placing the Mass once more in his hands, then quickly snatching it back, the offer of last-minute reprieve if he would only recant, and always the shouts of a crowd gathered to witness a “heathen” die.

Secured to the stake, surrounded by brush and logs, Tyndale was heard to pray, “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.” Then the executioner snapped hard on the rope, strangling Tyndale before the blaze consumed his body.

That final prayer was for the bully King Henry VIII, whose pursuit of a male heir had already cost Anne Boleyn her life and Catherine her marriage. So full of his own power and pomp, would the king’s eyes ever fall favorably on Tyndale’s English Bible?

Indeed they did. Two years after Tyndale’s death, King Henry authorized the distribution of the Matthew Bible, much of it Tyndale’s work. And then, on November 14, 1539, all printers and sellers of books were ordered by the king to provide “for the free and liberal use of the Bible in our own maternal English tongue.” Tyndale’s dream and his last earthly appeal had come true.

Excerpted from FOXE: Voices of the Martyrs by The Voice of the Martyrs. Order your copy here.

Torchlighters: Not Just For Kids

Torchlighters DVDs, produced by Christian History Institute and The Voice of the Martyrs, introduce today’s kids to the lives of heroes of our faith. The DVDs’ animated 30-minute features teach children the true stories of bold believers who came before us.

But did you know that the DVDs also include feature-length documentaries about the heroes?

The newest Torchlighters DVD, The Martin Luther Story, has been released just in time for the 500^th anniversary of Luther’s 95 theses. The animated segment, teacher’s guide, and student handouts on the DVD help teachers and parents explain the story behind the Protestant Reformation.

The 90-minute documentary on the DVD, Luther — His Life, His Path, His Legacy, includes informative interviews with historians and scenery from the region where Luther lived, interspersed with clips from the movie Luther.

The documentary with the Torchlighters Corrie ten Boom Story DVD includes World War II film footage, a demonstration inside Corrie’s house of how the “hiding place” sheltered Jewish guests, audio clips of Corrie speaking, and interviews with Corrie’s assistant.

The Samuel Morris Story is the true account of a young African “missionary to North America.” The accompanying documentary tells the story of Morris’s remarkable journey from Africa to New York, and how he led many Americans to Christ before his death in 1893 at the age of 20.

Torchlighters DVDs are available at vombooks.com. Teasers for the DVDs and downloadable lesson plans can be found at torchlighters.org and kidsofcourage.com.

You’re never too old to be inspired!

(Note: Please preview Torchlighters animated features and documentaries before sharing them with children.)

VOM’s Kids of Courage resources help parents and educators teach children ages 5 to 13 about persecuted Christians. The resources provide opportunities for children to serve and pray for their suffering brothers and sisters around the world.

Six Themes of an I Am N Christian

What does it mean to be an I Am N Christian in the Middle East right now? How should their stories inspire us as Western Christians? I have had the privilege of meeting and hearing the incredible stories of some of these sisters and brothers during recent visits to Iraq and neighboring countries where The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) is serving them in their time of great need. There are six themes that emerge from the testimonies of these Christians that every Christian can benefit from. These are themes that we have witnessed repeatedly in hundreds of interviews with persecuted Christians.

When Islamic State (ISIS) militants moved into northern Iraq, they began identifying Christian-owned homes and businesses. Families would find the Arabic letter “N” (ﻥ) painted on their buildings. This single letter, the first letter of the word used in the Quran to identify Christians, conveyed the powerful accusation that the occupants were followers of Jesus.

Our Christian brothers and sisters were tagged in this way and given the choice of either converting to Islam or standing for Christ and losing everything they owned. In the Iraqi city of Mosul (Nineveh, in the time of the Old Testament) more than 100,000 Christians were displaced, abducted or killed in less than one week. That happened more than a year ago, and none of the displaced believers have been able to return to their homes.

I have seen firsthand the way these followers of Jesus live out their faith. When we wrote the book I Am N, we organized it around six themes that capture the essence of their faith and inspire us to stand strong for Christ no matter where we live. God is faithful. He has not abandoned them, and neither should we.

What does it mean to say I Am N?

Standing with our persecuted family members is one of the greatest privileges any Christian can have. Boldly saying I Am N is a commitment to place ourselves alongside our sisters and brothers and to say, “I am not willing to let them suffer in silence. I am not willing to let them serve alone.”

We are all part of the body of Christ. When one suffers, we all suffer. I appreciate the way that Ray Vanderlaan describes it. He asks us to imagine slamming our finger with a hammer while trying to hang a picture. We would never respond, “I’m not suffering, only my finger is suffering!” In the same way, we often view ourselves as detached from our suffering family members.

As we have traveled around the world meeting with our persecuted family members, we have seen six themes that mark their lives. These themes are universal, biblical themes that we must embrace in order to experience spiritual maturity

(Listen or watch as VOM’s Dr. Jason Peters discusses these themes with Dr. Ed Stetzer on The Exchange)

Sacrifice

We will count the cost of discipleship and willingly pay the price because Christ is worth it.

The Apostle Paul directed Christians to “present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1). Jesus Christ is worth any sacrifice!

Courage

We will not become paralyzed by fear because God has empowered us to embrace risk.

Richard Wurmbrand said, “Jesus never feared or hated any man.” We are called to live courageously, confident that our God is ultimately in control. “Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD” (Psalm 31:24).

Joy

We will rejoice in the midst of our suffering in this world because of our eternal hope in Christ.

In Acts 20:24, we read, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.” Joy is one of the most surprising themes we witness when we sit with Christians who have been persecuted, but it is almost always present!

Perseverance

We will stand firm, resisting any opposition. By God’s strength, we endure and overcome.

Scripture reminds us that “tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:3b–5).

Forgiveness

We will allow the Holy Spirit to work supernaturally in our hearts as we obey Christ by loving our enemies and forgiving others as we have been forgiven.

“Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do’” (Luke 23:34a). Jesus demonstrated forgiveness — even as He died. Remarkably, by God’s grace, many martyrs supernaturally demonstrate forgiveness today — even as they or their loved ones die.

Faithfulness

We will not allow adversity to cause us to be unfaithful to God’s Word or disobedient to His purposes.

In Revelation 2:10, we read, “Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” The faithfulness of our sisters and brothers who are enduring incredible persecution right now is a model for us.

I Am N (David C. Cook, March 2016) will introduce you to inspirational Christians facing Islamic extremists. We can stand alongside these brothers and sisters, who remain joyful and blessed by their relationship with Christ despite having lost everything they own. The joy they have in Christ is something the extremists cannot take away from them. These Christians are our family members — part of the body of Christ. We will not let them suffer in silence. We will not let them serve alone.

Are you willing to say I Am N?

Dr. Jason Peters serves as Associate Vice President of Connection for The Voice of the Martyrs (VOM). As a global voice for our persecuted family members, Dr. Peters travels frequently to meet face-to-face with persecuted believers around the world, leads VOM’s outreach initiatives, including media development, special events, public relations, and oversees hundreds of speakers and representatives. Peters was Executive Editor of I Am N: Stories of Christians Facing Islamic Extremism and Host/Producer of the I Am N video curriculum (David C Cook, March 2016). He has ministered in 40 countries, as diverse as Sudan, Cuba, Nepal, Saudi Arabia, Kyrgyzstan, Iraq, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Bangladesh and Nigeria. Jason and his wife Kimberly ministered overseas for several years, where two of their five children were born.

VOM Radio: "We Were In Love With Jesus"

Maryam Rostampour and Marziyeh Amirizadeh were bold evangelists in Iran, sharing their faith and distributing Bibles in that Islamic nation.

Their evangelism work caught the attention of the authorities, and the two women ended up in Iran’s notorious Evin Prison, where they spent 259 days. But even in prison, Maryam and Marziyeh saw God’s hand at work, providing for them and allowing them to be witnesses for Him. “We experienced in prison how we should trust God and how we should trust His plans,” Maryam says.

This week on VOM Radio they share how they began their ministry, what happened the day of their arrest, how they saw God at work in prison and even about the most discouraging day in Evin. You will be inspired as you hear Maryam and Marziyeh share about their sacrificial love for Christ.

 

Click here to order your copy of Maryam and Marziyeh’s book, Captive in Iran.

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Book Review: They Say We Are Infidels

ISIS wasn’t on my radar screen until the day in June 2014 when the violent Islamist group entered Mosul, Iraq. I’d been closely following the devastation caused by Islamist groups in Syria, but I never dreamed it would overflow into Iraq, driving thousands of Christians out of Mosul and eventually many more out of the Nineveh Plains.

Journalist Mindy Belz had a better grasp of these events than most Americans. She had made repeated trips to the region, starting in 2002 when she crossed the Tigris River from Syria into Kurdistan, in Iraq. At that time, George W. Bush’s war against Saddam Hussein’s regime was about to begin, sowing the seeds for events that would occur in Syria in 2011 and in Iraq in 2014.

In her book They Say We Are Infidels, Belz traces the paths of Iraqi Christians from 2002 to the present, focusing primarily on the traditional Christian communities in Iraq rather than Muslim converts to Christianity.

During the 2003 Iraq conflict, Christians hoped the removal of Saddam Hussein would bring greater freedom to worship and a Christian voice in national politics. That same year, Belz met Insaf Safou, a Christian woman who had fled Iraq nine years earlier under threat from Saddam’s regime. The two traveled the country together, Insaf bringing aid and encouragement to weary Christians and Belz reporting on the war in Iraq. Over the next 12 years, they made several journeys together. Insaf reconnected with family and friends, while Belz gained insight into what was happening to Iraqi Christians.

As described in her book, Belz at first discovers a community of believers who are committed to maintaining a Christian presence in their centuries-old home. However, as the years pass and terrorist factions wreak havoc on historic monasteries, churches, schools and businesses, Belz sees more and more Christians make the difficult decision to leave their homeland.

By 2015, even Insaf, who had high hopes for her country, begins to believe that the best course for many Iraqi Christians is emigration. As Iraqi Christian Elias Shamuel tells her in the book, “Religiously I am gone. Ethnically I am cleansed. Culturally I am wiped out.”

Still, in the course of her travels, Belz encounters some who are determined to stay. Dominican friar Father Najeeb Michael rescued 55,000 rare books and manuscripts, including ancient Scriptures and church writings, from the library of the Clock Church in Mosul in the days prior to the ISIS invasion. After leaving for Erbil, he organized housing for both Christians and Yazidis, continuing to act as their spiritual leader.

Pastor Yousif Matty is another who refuses to leave. He is deeply invested in providing education in Kurdistan. “Out is not really a solution,” he says. “This is not the first time for the Mesopotamian people that Christianity has been oppressed. The movement with ISIS is not going to be the last problem. We have purpose and reason to stay.”

They Say We Are Infidels clearly relates the historical events and complexities guiding the lives of Iraqi Christians today, serving as an important documentation of recent Christian history in the Middle East.* Belz’s thorough reporting and depth of understanding are invaluable in helping believers know how best to help and pray for Iraqi Christians.

* Earlier this year, VOM released I Am N, its own book of testimonies about believers persecuted by ISIS.

Dory P. has worked with VOM for nine years. Dory tells the stories of the persecuted through VOM's newsletter, and her husband serves in VOM's international department. Between Dory, her husband, their 5-year-old son and their 2-year-old daughter, the family shares seven passports, though they know their ultimate citizenship is in heaven.

Disclosure: VOM is part of the Amazon Associates program. If you click on the links in this post and purchase the book from Amazon, VOM will receive a very small percentage of your purchase as a referral fee.